Anti-Corruption in a Discordant World: Contestation, Abuse, and Innovation

As the United Nations Convention against Corruption celebrates 20 years, there could be a sense that anti-corruption discourses, policies, and practices are settling into a stable, consensus-driven phase. This edited volume argues they are not.

Bringing together perspectives from around the world, this book captures the turbulent contemporary practice of anti-corruption. It shows it to be an arena in which domestic and transnational politics play out, shaping outcomes in often unpredictable ways. The purpose and means of this policy field are disputed and reinterpreted. Populist and illiberal leaders hijack anti-corruption to target opponents, restrict media and civil society, or even legitimise authoritarian rule. However, new forms of collective action and technology are emerging to forge novel paths forward.

Through various chapters, ranging from Russia to Brazil and Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom, the book shines a light on the contestation and abuse of contemporary anti-corruption, as well as on the innovation emerging to tackle one of the world’s most pressing problems. The book looks to the future to consider the anti-corruption we need to meet the challenges of a discordant world.

This book will be an essential read for students, researchers, professionals, and activists interested in how anti-corruption practice unfolds in a volatile age.

David Jackson is Principal Advisor at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Norway. He has published works in peer-reviewed academic journals, such as Development Studies, Public Integrity, and Southeastern and Black Sea Studies, and contributed chapters on future research agendas, social norms, and corruption in the Middle East to several edited volumes.

Inge Amundsen is Senior Researcher Emeritus at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Norway. He was Director of the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre from 2002 to 2006, and he has edited a book on the topic of political corruption in Africa.

David Aled Williams is Principal Advisor at the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre and Senior Researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway. He coordinates U4's thematic work on Corruption and Anti-Corruption Efforts in Natural Resources and Energy Sectors. He is author of The Politics of Deforestation and REDD+ in Indonesia: Global Climate Change Mitigation, published by Routledge (2023).