Analysing Trends of Political Corruption in Transitional States

Politicians have hijacked the transition to democratic governance and are manipulating it to guarantee that their privileges are not threatened. In transitional states of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), political corruption has become an Achilles heel. It undermines reform projects, forces businesses to operate outside the formal rules, leads to massive looting of resources, and discourages investments. Consequently, these states are at the risk of being trapped in a system in which political corruption cuts public revenues, weakens public trust, and deteriorates the credibility of the state, unless the necessary reforms are implemented. The nexus between political corruption, its causes and negative impact on states emerging from civil conflict or authoritarian rule in the SADC region remains empirically under- researched. It is against this background that this research is premised as a contribution to the growing literature of international anti-corruption law and transitional justice. This book is relevant to economists, social theorists, criminal justice researchers and practitioners, for example, lawyers, police, politicians, policy makers, etc.

Prosper Maguchu is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Giessen, specialising in the field of transitional justice and economic crimes. Along with practising as an Attorney, Maguchu also served as a Projects Lawyer at the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. He is the Chair and co-founder of Zero Tolerance Wise a private anti-corruption consultancy.