The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity How Corruption Control Makes Government Ineffective

Anechiarico Frank and Jacobs James B

ISBN 10: 0226020525 / ISBN 13: 9780226020525

Published by University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1996

About this Item

From an academic library with the usual stamps etc. Covers have been laminated.

Seller Inventory # A00024196

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity How Corruption Control Makes Government Ineffective
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, Chicago
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226020525
• ISBN 13: 9780226020525
• Binding: Soft Cover
• Edition: Reprint.
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Book Type: A00024196

About this title

Synopsis

In this comprehensive and controversial case study of anticorruption efforts, Frank Anechiarico and James B. Jacobs show how the proliferating regulations and oversight mechanisms designed to prevent or root out corruption seriously undermine our ability to govern. By constraining decision makers' discretion, shaping priorities, and causing delays, corruption control—no less than corruption itself—has contributed to the contemporary crisis in public administration.

"Anechiarico and Jacobs . . . have pushed aside the claims and posturing by officials and reformers and revealed a critical need to reevaluate just what we have and are doing to public servants, and to the public, in the name of anti-corruption."—Citylaw

"A timely and very useful addition to the new debate over corruption and reform."—Michael Johnston, American Political Science Review

From the Back Cover

Anticorruption reforms provide excellent political cover for public officials, but do they really reduce corruption? And do the benefits outweigh the costs? In this comprehensive and controversial case study of anticorruption efforts, Frank Anechiarico and James B. Jacobs show how the proliferating regulations and oversight mechanisms designed to prevent or root out corruption seriously undermine our ability to govern. Using anticorruption efforts in New York City to illustrate their argument, Anechiarico and Jacobs demonstrate the costly inefficiencies of pursuing absolute integrity. By proliferating dysfunctions, constraining decision makers' discretion, shaping priorities, and causing delays, corruption control - no less than corruption itself - has contributed to the contemporary crisis in public administration. This book begins a new and vital discourse on how to free public administration from burdensome corruption controls without sacrificing government integrity. It will interest scholars in political science, sociology, public administration, policy studies, and criminology.