Contestation, Abuse, and Innovation

Bringing together perspectives from around the world, this book captures the turbulent contemporary practice of anti-corruption. The book will attract students, researchers, professionals, and activists interested in how anti-corruption unfolds in a volatile age.

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.