Search

Copyright of International Journal of Professional Business Review (JPBReview) is the property of Open Access Publications LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Prof. Junaid Sarfraz has resigned as the Dean of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, and his resignation has been accepted by the Board of Governors. In his resignation letter, Prof. Sarfraz expressed gratitude to the Board for their trust and confidence in him, but stated that he was unable to address the issues affecting the safety of patients, faculty, staff, and trainees due to lack of support and facing humiliation for whistleblowing. He believes that the new setup under the MTI ACT will transform healthcare delivery, but he cannot continue to support a management that he has little trust and respect for. His resignation will be effective from July 11th, and he requests that his earlier prayer for a change of Associate Deans not be considered. [Extracted from the article]

Does the enactment of gender quotas in legislatures affect satisfaction with democracy? Although extensive research has generally affirmed the potential of gender quotas to advance women's political representation, our article investigates how quota adoption has shaped public attitudes toward democracy. We argue that positive effects resulting from the descriptive representation of women could be attenuated by negative reactions to the implementation of a quota system. Specifically, we posit that the backlash to these compulsory parity‐corrective policies will lead to lower levels of satisfaction with democracy, particularly for men. Using cross‐national survey evidence from as early as 1973 covering 69 countries and well over a million respondents, as well as a generalized synthetic control design to causally assess the impact of quotas, we find strong support for our expectations regarding the negative effects of quotas on democratic satisfaction. However, we do not find clear evidence that gender conditions this relationship and report heterogeneous region‐specific findings with ideology and support for quotas as moderators. Importantly, we observe the strongest negative associations between quotas and satisfaction in contexts with higher levels of corruption, specifically in Latin America. Seeing that quotas have the potential to generate lower levels of democratic satisfaction among men and women, our analysis contributes to our understanding of public responses to fast‐tracking women's representation and has broader implications for other top‐down initiatives aimed at deepening norms of democracy and equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Reform Movement initiated in 1998 in Indonesia signaled a critical juncture, aimed at dismantling the deeply ingrained corruption that characterized the Soeharto era. Despite considerable legislative initiatives, judicial corruption persists as a formidable obstacle to the effective administration of justice. This study employs progressive law theory to rigorously examine the complex dimensions of judicial corruption, its profound repercussions on the legal framework, and the urgent necessity for substantial legal reforms. Through an exploration of the mechanisms by which corruption infiltrates judicial systems, alongside the systemic alterations necessary for the strengthening of legal institutions, this analysis integrates theoretical perspectives with empirical research to propose a comprehensive framework for enduring anti-corruption strategies specifically designed for Indonesia’s judicial landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do women perceive corruption differently from men and why? Using elite survey data from over 3000 Latin American legislators nested in 49 country‐years, we explore who perceives corruption as an important national problem. We find that women legislators place more importance on corruption than men. We further examine three potential mechanisms to understand why: support for effective states, power marginalization, and corruption salience. We explore whether these mechanisms work through pathways of moderation or mediation. We find little support for hypotheses that gender interacts with these factors, but we do find that gender mediates who supports effective states and who is marginalized from power. In both the moderation and mediation analyses, we continue to find an underlying, robust effect of being a woman on rating corruption's importance. Thus, while debate over mechanisms remains, gender is foundational to explaining elites' corruption perceptions. Women consistently perceive corruption as more important than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the quest for integrity and transparency, the perception of corruption within a state not only undermines trust in governance but also hinders sustainable progress. This study investigates the relationship between education, economic performance, and governance and their impact on the assessment of corruption in the context of sustainable development goals. The research framework included data from 14 European countries, members of the Schengen zone, using panel data for the period 2003–2022. The analysis of the sample indicators guided us to apply further advanced research methods. Principal Components Analysis was applied to reduce dimensionality. Under various assumptions related to heterogeneity, stationarity and exogeneity, panel Fixed Effects (FE) and Dynamic Panel with Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) were applied to link the drivers and the perception of corruption. The results are twofold: (i) on the one hand, the diachronic evolution of corruption, education index, economic performance or governance perceptions reveals different patterns for the countries of the Schengen zone; (ii) on the other hand, the composite index for education and governance assessment had a significant impact on corruption perceptions, while economic performance showed no apparent link to corruption. Incorporating the effects of economic and political shocks, the study will explore the resilience of the Schengen Zone's governance against corruption, particularly by examining the effectiveness of crisis management and education's role in reinforcing integrity. It will also conduct a longitudinal analysis to assess how these shocks influence corruption perceptions over time, offering insights into the adaptability of policy responses and their lasting impact on public trust. The findings establish new research pathways for academics and provide valuable incentives to policymakers and professional trainers to improve mechanisms for combating corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive utilization of cesarean section (CS) has become a global concern, given the potential short-term and long-term detrimental effects for mothers and infants. Worldwide, the rate of CS continues to rise, but efforts to curtail unnecessary CS procedures have yielded limited success. By combining data from three resources, this study aims to estimate the effects of anti-corruption campaigns under the Xi administration on CS rates. We focus on Shanxi Province, a major coal-producing province in north-central China, with notoriety for the collusion between local politicians and business elites. Using the data from the China Corruption Investigation Dataset and data from publicly listed firms between 2013 and 2016, we found that anti-corruption campaigns significantly changed the social environment as firms' business entertainment spending experienced substantial reductions. Using discharge records from 137 public hospitals, we adopted an instrumental variable (IV) approach and found that the anti-corruption campaigns led to significant reductions in unnecessary CS rates. The reductions are bigger among patients with second or later deliveries. We also find that the anti-corruption campaigns changed behaviors of attending and resident physicians. Our results provide insights into strategies to reduce corrupt practices within the healthcare sector and implementing interventions to minimize the occurrence of CS among healthy women and newborns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper provides a corpus‐based study of war and corruption metaphors in South Asian Englishes (specifically Indian English, Bangladeshi English, Nepali English and Pakistani English). Considering the highly news‐relevant nature of these concepts, the South Asian Varieties of English corpus (SAVE2020) serves as the database. In an initial step, we outline the source domains at different levels of schematicity used to construe war and corruption, revealing the salient domains at location and person. By pursuing a multifactorial approach, this study aims at answering the question whether the choice of source domain is governed by the sociolinguistic factors gender and variety, and intra‐linguistic factors, for example, length and semantic prosody of the metaphor‐related words. It furthermore investigates whether multifactorial analyses, which are still a novelty within research on metaphor variation, constitute a suitable methodological approach. By doing so, our research demonstrates the need to complement this quantitative approach with a qualitative one that offers a more fine‐grained description of the source domains used to structure metaphorical concepts like war and corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study examines the membership duration of travel and leisure (tourism) firms in the United Nations Global Compact Sustainability Reporting Programme between 2007 and 2020. Important factors of duration include firm characteristics (such as size and ownership) as well as contextual country-specific elements relating to environmental progress and control of corruption. Data originate from 693 member firms entering the programme at any point during the analysis period. Estimation results, based on the Cox proportional hazard model, show that tourism firms in countries that decouple emissions from economic growth are more likely to endure in the programme. A high level of corruption control in the home country is also associated with a significantly higher probability of membership duration. Larger firms, publicly listed firms and members of local Global Compact networks are also more likely to remain in the programme. Control of corruption is only important for duration outside the OECD; meanwhile, environmental performance at the country level is crucial independent of location. Environmental performance is particularly significant in more recent years, in parallel with an accelerated green transition in many countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through preferential treatment by education officials or through bribery, some adolescents can obtain admission to a junior high school. However, it is unclear whether it affects the mental health of adolescents. This study used Propensity Score Matching to examine the effects of corruption on adolescent mental health. A total of 17,254 junior high school students sample (11–18 years old; 48.7% girls and 53.1% boys) were used from the China Education Panel Survey. 14.1% of adolescents attended a junior high school by corrupt means, corruption had a significantly negative effect on the mental health of these adolescents (ATT = −0.388, p < 0.01), the reasons grounded in the fact that they received more criticisms from teachers and wanted to leave their current school. In general, corruption in the admissions process can have detrimental effects on the mental health of adolescents. This study extends the previous articles on how to improve adolescent mental health and complements the application of cognitive dissonance theory. Findings from this study revealed that anti-corruption in the education sector is necessary, and the institutional design to ensure fair enrolment in basic education will contribute to the mental health of adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different views of corruption are discussed in the literature, ranging from theories highlighting a positive role of corruption (to 'grease the wheels' of an economy) to negative (acting as 'sand in the wheels') or even destructive effects of corruption on economic outcomes. The empirical evidence in this context is mixed, with alternative theories being supported by different studies, typically relying on different data sources, time periods, and measures of corruption. In this paper, we assess several alternative views of corruption simultaneously in a single empirical framework. Specifically, we test six prominent hypotheses regarding the role of corruption for government revenues using a comprehensive country-level panel dataset covering 194 countries in the period 1996–2019. Our results help to shed light on the factors that are empirically important in explaining the link between corruption and government revenues, including the role of governance, autocracy, fragile states, and natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are corruption trials that involve the highest ranks in the public sphere and large private companies biased against some groups? Existing research predominantly focuses on corruption prosecutions of politicians, leaving unresolved the extent to which judges apply differential treatment when convicting and sentencing the political class compared to other defendants, including those in the private sector. To address this gap, we investigate judicial bias within Brazil's famous “Operação Lava Jato,” the largest corruption investigation carried out in history. Leveraging an original database that traces the trajectory of the universe of the 3154 cases of Lava Jato, we show that judges' sentencing decisions were not governed by a partisan logic. Instead, judges were more inclined to impose longer prison times and higher fines to elected politicians when compared to all other defendants, particularly those from the private sector. We interpret these findings as evidence of antipolitical class bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare corruption poses a significant threat to individuals, institutions, sectors, and states. Combating corruption is paramount for protecting patients, maintaining the healthcare system's integrity, and preserving public trust. As corruption evolves, takes new forms, and adapts to changing socio-political landscapes, understanding its manifestations is critical to developing effective anti-corruption strategies at individual and institutional levels. Objective: The aim was to comprehensively collate the manifestations of different types of corruption in healthcare to illustrate prevailing patterns and trends and to provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with practical insights to inform research agendas, regulatory and governance strategies, and accountability measures. Method: We conducted a narrative review of scientific articles published between 2013 and 2022 using keyword searches in SCOPUS and EBSCO. We utilized the corruption typology proposed by the European Union and Thompson's Institutional Corruption Framework to systematically identify manifestations across different corruption types. The Prisma scheme was employed to document the selection process and ensure reproducibility. Findings: Bribery in medical service provision was the most frequently investigated form of corruption, revealing rather uniform manifestations. Misuse of high-level positions and networks and institutional corruption also received considerable attention, with a wide range of misconduct identified in institutional corruption. Extending the analysis to institutional corruption also deepened the understanding of misconduct in the context of improper marketing relations and highlighted the involvement of various stakeholders, including academia. The pandemic exacerbated the vulnerability of the healthcare sector to procurement corruption. Also, it fostered new types of misconduct related to the misuse of high-level positions and networks and fraud and embezzlement of medical drugs, devices, and services. Conclusions: The review spotlights criminal actions by individuals and networks and marks a notable shift towards systemic misconduct within specific types of corruption. The findings highlight the necessity of customized anti-corruption strategies throughout the healthcare sector. These insights are crucial for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in guiding the formulation of legal frameworks at local and global levels, governance strategies, and research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One way that the United States conducted the Cold War was through its surplus food programmes (Public Law 480), which fed the hungry and supported anticommunist regimes. Consequently, South Koreans consumed over fourteen times more wheat flour by 1960 than during the preceding Japanese colonial period. This study presents a nuanced exploration of 1950s South Korea, using wheat flour — a central commodity in US aid — as a focal point to unravel complex political dynamics. It challenges the traditional binary narrative of authoritarianism versus liberalism, demonstrating how the Rhee regime’s promotion of wheat flour consumption reflected multifaceted strategies of corruption. This article underscores the unintended consequences of US aid, highlighting the intricate interactions between foreign assistance and local political, economic and social forces. By analysing the local responses to wheat flour distribution, it reveals how US aid, while aimed at bolstering anticommunism, inadvertently facilitated corruption and influenced public sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on analysing the effects of sector orientation and the origin of FDI on the types of corruption. The GMM technique and the IV-2SLS on a panel of Sub-Saharan African countries were used. Globally, we find that FDI increases political corruption in SSA. Moreover, the study shows that sector orientation and the origin of FDI have significant effects on each type of corruption. Primary sector FDI enhances public sector corruption and reduces judicial corruption. Secondary sector FDI increases executive, public, and judicial corruption. In the tertiary sector, executive and public corruption are enhanced while judiciary corruption is reduced. Regarding the origin, FDI from France increases public sector corruption whereas FDI from China and the USA reduces it. Executive corruption is reduced by FDI, regardless of its origin. FDI from France and the USA discourages judiciary corruption while FDI from China increases it. FDI from China reduces legislative corruption, while FDI from the USA tends to increase it. Furthermore, the analysis of the transmission channels shows education and development levels as important channels through which FDI could reduce corruption in SSA. Relevant policy implications derived from this study include the necessity for policy-makers to combat all types of corruption and mostly public corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is a serious threat to the stability and security of societies, undermining institutions and democratic values, ethical principles, and justice, as well as sustainable development and the rule of law. It manifests itself in many ways and in a multitude of contexts, affecting almost all human rights, including economic and social rights (i.e., the right to work, the right to food, the right to housing, the right to health, the right to education, the right to public services, the right to development), as well as civil and political rights (i.e., the right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to political participation, the right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial). In this perspective, starting from an examination of the direct and negative impact of corruption on the enjoyment of human rights (Section 1), the analysis that follows focuses on the obligations of States to respect, promote, and above all, protect human rights (i.e., take all necessary measures to ensure their full enjoyment) (Section 2), traces the ECtHR’s most incisive pronouncements on violations of individual guarantees in the context of corruption (Section 3), and highlights the crucial role of the Court’s case law in defining more effective, preventive, and punitive measures against corruption (Section 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of significant international events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s assertive diplomacy, the recently developed concept of strategic corruption has been increasingly employed to discuss how corruption infiltrates international affairs. Unlike traditional corruption, strategic corruption is commonly understood to be a sophisticated mechanism that states use to achieve geopolitical objectives, intertwining economic and security concerns. This paper explores this concept, analyzes its relationship with related phenomena, and proposes a theoretical framework to contextualize strategic corruption within national and international arenas. The framework depicts strategic corruption as a multifaceted process spanning three spheres: domestic (source), international, and domestic (target). Each sphere involves unique pathways aimed at corrupting institutions in the target domain. This approach contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics between corruption, national security, and foreign affairs, offering a coherent tool to address these challenges within the fields of international relations and anti-corruption studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between foreign financial aid and economic growth in Central Asian countries. Foreign aid is viewed as a critical resource for promoting long-term growth by addressing key challenges such as infrastructure, healthcare, and education. However, the effectiveness of aid remains contentious, with critics arguing that it may foster dependency, corruption, and inefficient use of resources. Central Asia, comprising countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, has received substantial foreign financial aid since gaining independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. While some scholars suggest that foreign aid has positively impacted the economic growth of Central Asian nations, others argue that it has had minimal or even negative effects. This study emphasizes the importance of evaluating not only the amount of aid but also its effectiveness, with a particular focus on the role of institutional quality in determining the success of aid in promoting sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The research aimed to verify the influence of meeting public demands on the perception of tolerance of Brazilian voters towards the "rouba, mas faz" policy. Although a social unison of rejection of corruption in politics is perceived, there is a possibility that voters relax this disapproval in the face of the results that managers offer to communities. Methodology: Study of quantitative approach, as for the procedures, a survey was used, with a questionnaire and study of scenarios, of tolerance to "rouba, mas faz", as a research instrument. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and presentation in percentages were used for the answers to assertions and scenarios. Results: The results indicate that Brazilians demand honest politicians, although for almost 25% of the population every politician is corrupt, without distinction; for 80% of respondents the main cause of problems in Brazilian public management is political corruption; approximately 70% of voters do not use transparency portals to decide their vote, although 80% claim to research the candidates' history before making their decision. Contributions of the Study: Aspects related to the median voter theory were perceived, since, although Brazilian voters demonstrate intolerance to corruption, the profile with the average characteristics of the population tends to vote for that candidate who promises to meet their needs. In addition, in general terms, 7% of the sample would re-elect a very corrupt politician, as long as he is very productive, while 24% would tolerate corruption, as long as it occurs on a small scale and is accompanied by works and benefits to society, implying that there is, in general terms, to a certain degree, the influence of meeting public demands on voters' tolerance of the "rouba, mas faz" policy in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work integrates cooperation, punishment, treasury damage, and norms transgression in three variants of a single experimental model of corruption. Participants formed words with predetermined letters, receiving a reward for each word, besides an individual reward taken from the common fund if they reached the goal. A manipulation in the letters made it impossible to reach the goal, so reporting exceeding it implied cheating for a benefit. Three studies model the effects of signaling, descriptive norms, and the possibility of punishing or investigating corruption acts (transparency). 248 participants were randomly assigned to the conditions of each study. Significatively less cheating behavior was found in reports of words and earnings in Studies 1 and 3, but not in Study 2. The experimental model reveals the potential of transparency as an alternative to diminishing corruption with less social cost than altruistic punishment. The relevance of these results for implementing public policies was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why are politicians more likely to be prosecuted and convicted for corruption in some contexts rather than in others? Pulling together disparate threads of the literature on what we call the politics of criminal accountability , this review organizes current explanations along three levels of inquiry: (1) micro , encompassing characteristics of individual criminal-accountability agents and defendants, such as their partisanship and ideology, professional ethos, enforcement costs and judicial corruption; (2) meso , emphasizing the independence, capacities and coordination degrees of criminal-accountability institutions; and (3) macro , including the impact of political regimes, political competition, support from civil society, corruption levels and international norms. In doing so, we draw attention to methodological shortcomings and opportunities for research on the topic, providing a roadmap for this field of inquiry that also includes unexplored questions and tentative answers. Furthermore, we present new systematic data set that reveals a substantial increase in the conviction of former heads of government for corruption since 2000, underscoring the importance of the phenomenon and highlighting the need for further research into the politics of criminal accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the controversies that propelled Black college football toward favored institution status after World War II. Between 1912 and 1932, HBCU football overcame major issues that threatened its legitimacy, such as league formation and aligning with the Black press to end corrupt practices. These issues placed Black college football in the broader movement to curtail sports improprieties and bolster Black cultural respectability. This story's importance rests with the portrayal of HBCUs as nexuses where education and respectability intersected, as reforming football reflected a broader commitment to uplift the race through orderly athletic expression. This article integrates the HBCU experience with the overwhelmingly White scholarship on college football reform in the twentieth century, furthers the concept that segregated sports were platforms for Black uplift through congregation and meritocratic exercise, and highlights the activist role of Black sports media in establishing a higher purpose for Black athletics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bulk of scholarship on police intervention in enforcing COVID-19 pandemic-imposed restrictions focuses on police misconduct, securitisation, human rights, police preparedness, and legitimacy, but empirical research on police corruption during the restriction in Nigeria is sparse despite reports of pervasive police extortion and bribery. Thus, this study fills the academic gap by examining the dynamics of police predation and corruption during the enforcement in Nigeria. With interview data, I uniquely examined the intervention from the purview of predatory policing – an aspect of policing that is understudied in the context of COVID-19 policing despite its relevance in contemporary discourse on social control. Evidence indicates that, as COVID-19 policing characterised predation in Nigeria, the embedded problems of police corruption revolve around unresolved police institutional challenges and police-public connivance that results from moral decadence, thereby portending gloomy implications for law enforcement and society. Therefore, advancing and implementing police reforms, addressing moral corruption, and resolving widespread socioeconomic problems are very critical in the effective policing and containment of future public health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal policy designed to fight against corruption focuses on individual deviant behaviour in order to remove the “bad apples”. This approach is insufficient because it does not address situations where corruption is a central element of the governance model, as a result of becoming a key factor in the decision making process in public institutions and private organizations at the local, regional, national and international levels. This article analyzes the characteristics and functioning of institutional and organizational corruption and complex (transnational) corruption networks, which are often closely related to each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with its development, the category of sexual gratification emerged which received a lot of attention from the public and law enforcement officials. This sexual satisfaction is different from the satisfaction we know in general. The difference lies in the object. Sexual gratification is a form of degrading women's dignity. In Indonesia, sexual gratification has not been explicitly regulated. Therefore, this research will discuss the regulation of sexual gratification based on positive law in Indonesia and the evidence. From the results of the analysis it is known that sexual gratification can be included in the provisions of Article 12 B paragraph 1 of Law 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Crimes. This can be found in the phrase "other facilities" where "facilities" themselves are defined as the means used to facilitate an implementation. Therefore, the use of sexual service facilities with the aim of achieving all desires is the intention of the party providing satisfaction. Proof of the existence of sexual gratification in eradicating corruption in Indonesia is based on criminal procedural law which refers to the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) in Article 184 paragraph (1) and Article 26A of Law Number 20 of 2001 Jo. Law Number 31 of 1999 uses a reverse or balanced evidentiary system where the burden is on the Public Prosecutor and the defendant to provide evidence of the criminal act of sexual gratification for which the defendant is charged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Indonesian criminal law, the status of a Perpetrator Witness (Justice Collaborator) has significant legal consequences. With the entry of this Justice Collaborator regulation, the threat of criminal punishment will be less effective against perpetrators of serious crimes. This will make it more difficult to identify the main perpetrators in cases of crimes committed together, and will be a new strategy to avoid the threat of high punishment because the status of a Justice Collaborator is guaranteed to get leniency for serious crimes committed. The enactment of the regulation on the status of Justice Collaborator in corruption criminal justice which provides a guarantee of a reduction in punishment for perpetrator witnesses is seen as very counterproductive with a very high criminal threat for corruption perpetrators as perpetrators of certain crimes (serious crimes). Most people in Indonesia even strongly agree that the criminal threat for the perpetrators of corruption crimes is the death penalty, so great are the hopes of people who want no more corruption crimes that are very detrimental to the state and the people of Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prosecutor's Office plays a crucial role in the functioning of the legal system. However, in reality, the Corruption Court is still located in every provincial capital in Indonesia, which often results in high costs for resolving corruption cases which are sometimes disproportionate to the losses they cause to the state. The author of this research focuses on analyzing circular letters belonging to the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes by linking the theory of Legal Economic Analysis as a form of consideration and also explaining how the Prosecutional Office applies a restorative justice approach. The research contributes to the topic discussed by evaluating the policy's significance and the prosecutor-office's role in handling corruption cases through the application of restorive justice principles. This study also aims to provide an overview of the challenges and technical legal issues faced by the public prosecutor in carrying out their responsibility to recover funds and/or state assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has caused significant hardship in sub‐Saharan Africa. As a result, Kenya and Nigeria now have statutes that focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Both countries are also parties to the Paris Agreement. The Kenyan Climate Change Act (2016) and the Nigerian Climate Change Act (2021) are similar in terms of their design and overarching aims. Meanwhile, certain pivotal statutory provisions in both statutes are inconsistent with their overarching aims of enhancing appropriate responses to climate change. There is considerable scope for access to justice to be enhanced in the Kenyan and Nigerian statutes. Further, despite their similarities, the divergent approaches of the statutes undermine regional coherence. Such coherence is critical to effectively addressing climate change because both regional powers face similar vulnerabilities with respect to climate change and socio‐economic challenges. This article, therefore, undertakes a comparative analysis of the Kenyan and Nigerian legal regimes in two key respects, namely, (1) institutional structures and how they impact corruption and (2) accessing justice in the context of climate litigation. The Nigerian regime is behind that of Kenya in both regards. The article concludes by examining how the Aarhus Convention and the International Access to Justice Convention can help to fill any statutory gaps concerning access to justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courts prosecuting corruption serve a critical horizontal accountability function, but they can also play a role in moments of vertical accountability when voters can sanction corrupt candidates. This article documents the strategic use of corruption lawsuits, demonstrating the presence of an electoral cycle in filing new corruption accusations against politicians. Using an original dataset of daily corruption complaints filed in federal courts against members of Argentina's main political coalitions between 2013 and 2021, we document increased corruption accusations against and by politicians in the periods immediately preceding an election. A second dataset of daily media coverage of corruption accusations in two leading newspapers suggests that corruption is more salient before elections, offering politicians a temporal focal point to prepare and launch especially impactful lawsuits. Our findings shed new light on using courts for accountability and debates about the so-called 'lawfare' in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the existence of anti-corruption whistleblowing laws, Zimbabwe's public service has suffered from maladministration, corrupt politicians, "mediators" and businesses, malpractice and irregularities for a long time. This article, employing grounded theory within a qualitative research paradigm, discusses a study which draws on eight interviews and found that whistleblowers lack state protection because state institutions do not have the political will to protect them. These realities are associated with: 1) state organisation capacity and success, or lack of it, in whistleblower protection in the public sector; 2) the significance of legislative and regulatory measures that encourage citizens to become whistleblowers as a key deterrent against corruption; 3) the lack of operationalisation of whistleblower protection within public organisations; 4) the possibility of creative intervention strategies and tactics that would increase the role and success of whistleblowing initiatives and actions; and 5) future financial incentives in laws and regulations that could encourage whistleblowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One key question driving innovations in corruption studies is how anticorruption reforms can be more impactful and sustainable. This is critical to understand due to the detrimental impact of corrupt practices on equality, human rights, peace, and the rule of law. A significant body of research has shown that many anticorruption initiatives do not produce the expected effect, or they achieve results that fade after the intervention ceases. Seeking to understand how to improve anticorruption outcomes, scholars have turned to causal explanations of the persistence of corruption ranging from institutional settings and individual motives to informal practices and social norms. This article explores the intersection of social norms and corruption as a contribution to improving anticorruption programming. It explains how norms impact our conceptual understanding of corruption and the vicious cycle that exists between corrupt practices and norms. Grounded in the belief that programming and social norm diagnosis need to be contextually driven, we lay out the nascent research on changing social norms that drive corruption and the consequences of ignoring them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the motives for Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The topic is explored through five principles developed by Kenneth Burke to analyse motives: act, scene, agent, agency and purpose. The major claim is that the war is being waged to ensure the longevity of the Putin regime and so allow the corrupt and power-hungry political elite to retain their positions. The kleptocratic state is kept afloat by means of waging war only through a system which can implicate wealthy and powerful individuals in serious crimes at any moment, suppresses dissent and produces expansive propaganda for the broader population. This war is a result of the privatisation of the political state and its deliberate transformation into the state of nature, which poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to Russia itself and the entire world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given rising concerns over corruption globally, this research investigates the factors that influence integrity. The study found no statistically significant effect of prior education, geography, or experience on the integrity levels of careerist senior civil servants (CSCS) in India (also known as, Indian administrative service officers), which is infamous for corruption in public administration. We posit that this might be attributed to heightened social security received by CSCS amply aided by social contagion, rigorous training, and network effects, which impact the maintenance of integrity at the individual level. Our study supplements the existing rationale of bureaucratic reputation theory, social contagion theory and public service motivations. We argue that corruption in a democratic government in a lower-middle-income country is often a result of an interconnected network of stakeholders that CSCS may have a limited ability to influence, resulting in a quiet life equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to analyze the most widely used import substitution instruments of CIS and identifying the most prospective directions for import substitution developing in the economy of post-Soviet states. Due to implementation of a multi-stage comprehensive research project based on a quantitative approach, the aim of this study was achieved. The present study showed that three main import substitution instruments for CIS are import duties, non-tariff methods of foreign trade regulating and domestic policy instruments to support national producers. In addition, based on the correlation and regression analysis of the time series model, strong correlations between import by export coverage ratio and the productive capacity index of structural changes were found for almost all the countries studied. This indicates the reverse effect of protectionist import substitution mechanisms on a domestic market development. The reasons for the choice of management mechanisms by the public administration of most CIS countries, which lead to a purposely negative result, could not be studied within this work. Additionally, the results may be useful in practical work of anti-corruption organizations for the suppression and prevention of the corrupt state-criminal networks in the field of import substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates corruption in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Using World Bank’s BEEPS IV and BEEPS V surveys, we investigate the degree of corruption in these countries for different industries. We focus on the manufacturing sector, the services sector, and the core sector, and focus on corruption related to customs/imports, courts, and taxes/tax collection. We find that the overall degree of corruption for all three sectors is somewhere between “seldom” and “never”. Our results show that, for all three sectors, the degree of corruption is the highest in taxes/tax collection and the lowest in courts. Again, for all three sectors, shareholding firms with shares traded in the stock market and limited partnerships suffer the most. While for the manufacturing and services sectors, larger firms suffer the most, for the core sector, medium-sized firms suffer the most. When we compare the manufacturing sector to the other sectors, we find that while the overall level of corruption is similar in the manufacturing sector and the other sectors, manufacturers face a higher degree of corruption in transactions related to customs/imports and taxes/tax collection when compared to the other sectors. We do not find any significant difference between the manufacturing sector and the other sectors with respect to the degree of corruption related to courts. Overall, our findings indicate that policymakers in the region need to protect manufacturers from requests/demands for additional payments or gifts by customs authorities and/or by tax collectors and auditors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Venezolana de Gerencia (RVG) is the property of Revista de Filosofia-Universidad del Zulia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital technologies are often perceived to be uniformly positive tools for anti-corruption purposes creating more transparency and making governments more accountable. However, the evidence is inconsistent and scarce with empirical research narrowly focused on ICT as a specific aspect of digitalization. This study offers new insights based on a context-dependent perspective to solve the puzzle with a more holistic view of the digital transformation process. We distinguish between rule-based and non-rule-based countries as different governance environments and suggest that the context determines how digitalization plays out. While digital tools contribute to the fight against bribery in rule-based economies, they facilitate corruptive practices in non-rule-based countries. A panel data analysis on 72 countries over a 9-year period from 2012 to 2020 supports our arguments and confirms the context-specific nature of digital transformation and its discrepant implications for different societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contaduría y Administración is the property of Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to analyze the impact of corruption, financial access, and gender on corporate tax compliance using data from the World Bank survey covering 52 countries from 2019 to 2023. The findings show that corruption positively affects tax compliance, indicating that higher levels of corruption lead to increased tax obligations for firms. Additionally, financial access improves tax compliance by providing businesses with greater financial stability, which enhances their ability to meet tax requirements. However, the gender of senior managers does not significantly influence tax compliance. The results suggest that to improve tax compliance, policies should focus on reducing corruption, increasing access to finance, and ensuring fair tax practices. Companies should avoid corrupt practices and collaborate with government authorities to foster compliance. The study contributes to the existing literature by incorporating the role of corruption, financial access, and gender into the framework of tax compliance, offering new insights into the dynamics of corporate behavior in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing global human population, habitat conversion, and the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources have created unsustainable demands on nature, resulting in widespread biodiversity loss. Primates, which represent the third most specious Order of mammals, are facing an extinction crisis. Currently, 69% of primate species are listed by the IUCN as threatened (Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered) and 94% have declining populations. Here, we examine two primary threats to primate population persistence, namely the commercialized hunting and capturing of wild primates and their body parts for food, traditional medicine, pets, and use in biomedical research. Both the legal wildlife trade and illegal wildlife trafficking represent multibillion-dollar industries that contribute to primate population decline, a reduction in genetic diversity, and local extirpation. Trade and trafficking also can lead to the emergence of infectious diseases, increasing biosecurity risks to humans. Between 2015 and 2021, CITES reported 337,511 live primates representing at least 99 species were legally traded, with 6.5% sourced directly from the wild. The recent indictment of Cambodian officials for allegedly laundering wild-caught long-tailed macaques into the U.S. by labelling them as captive-bred, highlights the need for greater transparency and accountability. Comprehensive data on the illegal trafficking of primates are extremely difficult to obtain. However, between 2009 and 2017, primates accounted for 20% of all seizures of illegally traded mammals in the air transport sector. International wildlife trafficking is dominated by criminal networks, corruption, and driven by the demands of wealthy consumers. In addition, the internet has expanded international opportunities to connect buyers and sellers of wild-caught primates and their body parts. Despite explicit bans on selling endangered primates, social media sites continue to do so. Moreover, data on the global food security index (GFSI) indicate that as the international demand for wild live primates, their meat, and other body parts has continued to increase, the majority of people in primate range nations have remained food insecure. Given that almost 70% of primate species are negatively impacted by hunting and trapping, we offer a set of recommendations to reduce the trade and trafficking of wild primates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista do Serviço Público (Civil Service Review) is the property of Revista do Servico Publico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne is the property of Classiques Garnier and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Corruption has become a pervasive and debilitating issue in modern Nigerian society, undermining economic development, eroding trust in institutions, and perpetuating social inequality. Despite numerous attempts to combat corruption, Nigeria continues to grapple with this seemingly intractable problem. This article seeks to offer a novel perspective on addressing corruption in Nigeria by engaging with the ethical philosophy of John Rawls. Through a conceptual, critical, and analytical examination of Rawls' principles of justice and the social contract, this study argues that a preventative approach to corruption, grounded in a moral and political alignment of human conduct, is essential for reversing the curse of corruption in Nigeria. By applying Rawls' prescriptions for an ideal society, including the importance of codes of ethics and the alignment of morality and politics, this article contends that Nigerians must fundamentally alter their behaviour and adhere to the principles of the social contract to govern human relations. This study contributes to the on-going discourse on corruption in Nigeria by providing a philosophical framework for understanding the problem and offering a pragmatic solution to this national disgrace. Ultimately, this article argues that a Rawlsian approach to corruption holds the key to unlocking sustainable development and a more just society in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Public Administration & Civil Service / Memlekettìk Basķaru Ža̋ne Memlekettìk Ķyzmet is the property of Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan / Akademiya Gosun and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A thorough analysis of the problem of digitalization of the electoral process is carried out within the framework of modern research in the social sciences. However, these studies focus mainly on technological aspects, but it is also important to reflect on the ethical dimension of the problem of using information technology during elections in the modern world. The electoral model is a significant component of the political, legal, and social systems of a state. Elections should serve to develop and improve, to achieve new heights by the state and society. The purpose of this study is to reflect on the ethical dimension of the phenomenon of digitalization of the electoral process in Ukraine and the world. In the face of current challenges, the Ukrainian state faces an important task to ensure the possibility of free expression of will for all its citizens. The solution to this extremely difficult task: ensuring transparent and effective elections devoid of corruption risks is a prerequisite for the democratic future of Ukraine. That is why it is appropriate to use the experience of electronic voting in developed countries. The most important condition for the successful implementation of the electronic voting system is the existence of a broad public consensus on the need for such a technology. Such a consensus becomes possible in a situation of high level of public trust in the state in general and in the innovations it introduces in particular. The technological basis for electronic elections involves the availability of secure software and relevant databases that are minimally vulnerable to cybercrime. Thus, the influence of the personal factor is reduced, i.e., the vote counting procedure is delegated to a machine system, and potentially unethical and dishonest actions of election commission members cannot be realized. However, it seems that the risks associated with voter identification, which is carried out only on the basis of documents, are increasing. This creates risks of using "identity theft", including for illegal voting. Such actions give rise to a significant number of ethical problems associated with the impossibility of expressing the will of a person whose identity has been stolen, as well as the difficulty in determining responsibility for the outcome of a choice made on behalf of a person, but not by the person himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]