There has been a huge expansion of anti-corruption efforts over the past 30 years.
New institutions and organisations have been created with a specific remit to tackle corruption, and existing institutions have added corruption to their remit, sometimes in a big way.
This has affected governments, multilateral institutions like the UN and the World Bank, and civil society.
What are the key forums and initiatives, and how successful have they been? Have they been of net benefit or net harm to developing countries?
This module will look at the global landscape and evaluate the relative successes and failures of the key actors.
Module Lead: Liljana Cvetanoska
What you’ll learn
The module takes you on a world tour of anti-corruption initiatives and actions, with a particular focus on less developed economies, as many of the efforts have been focused on those countries and corruption has become closely related with the international development agenda.
We start by looking at the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which was the precursor to much of the international activity that followed the end of the Cold War.
The module introduces key conventions from the UN and OECD and looks in depth at the role of key institutions including the World Bank, EU and Council of Europe.
We also look at the role played by civil society organisations such as Transparency International, as well as asking difficult questions like whether there’s now too much anti-corruption activity.
At the heart of this module are questions around which approaches have been successful, and whether the extensive effort made by the international community to establish a common approach and put in place common structures has been beneficial, particularly in developing countries.
By the end of the module, you’ll be able to:
- identify the key international actors and initiatives in the anti-corruption field, and evaluate their relative roles
- summarise the key international trends and debates regarding international actors
- evaluate the relative contributions of different international actors in the global fight against corruption.
Types of assessment may include:
- project work (20%) – you’ll produce a one-page poster summarising the anti-corruption efforts of two or more different international or regional actors, identifying similarities and differences between their efforts
- a presentation (20%) – you’ll prepare a 10-minute group presentation in which you will critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the anti-corruption efforts of one international actor
- a case study (60%) – you’ll prepare a written case study examining the role of an international anti-corruption actor in a specific country.