« South Asia - The Mystery of the "Missing Women," High Population Growth Rates, and The Limits of Choice | Main | First World Criminals, Third World Crimes - Part 2: France's Heart of Darkness: The ELF Story. »
Sunday, November 16, 2003
First World Criminals, Third World Crimes – Recent Transnational Corruption Cases. Part I: Introduction.


However, from the standpoint of developing countries, there is even more to learn from a recent flurry of transnational corruption cases that all involve serious criminal misconduct by leading First World multinationals in Third World countries.
The hit parade includes:
A French court case that ended just last week has helped to expose a vast network of bribery and corruption that operated throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as Europe, for more than four decades -- with the complicity of France's highest officials. (See Part 2.)







This article is the first in a series by Submerging Markets that will examine such cases in detail. One of our objectives is just to tell a few colorful stories. But we believe that there is also a great deal to learn from these cases about the way the world really works. In particular:
Of course, corruption varies with country income levels -- poorer countries have fewer resources for law enforcement, and they also have often suffered from “exploitative states,” which hardly encourages respect for the law. As for "national culture" explanations for corruption, as Alex Gerschenkron used to say, we start out by being suspicious of such "uncaused causes" -- but then one visits Italy! There is a obviously great deal of “petty-ante” corruption throughout the developing world, from the morditas (“bites”) made famous by Mexican and Costa Rican policemen and Nigeria’s “dash,” to Kenya’s “kitu kidogo” and “sodas,” to baksheesh in the Middle East. And, as the examples of Russia, Mexico, Argentina, and China demonstrate, there is no shortage of unscrupulous Third World entrepreneurs.
However, as the cases examined in this series illustrate, much of the most heinous transnational corruption involves giant development projects, massive bribes, and secret haven bank accounts, where the transgressions are on such a grand, systematic scale that they require the active connivance of First World banks, transnational companies, and governments. This kind of big-ticket corruption requires a transnational system – a global network, not only of willing bribees in “corrupt” developing countries, but of eager corporate bribers, private bankers, First World government officials and spies, as well as “see-no-evil” development bankers at the World Bank and the IMF. Of course all these folks reside in First World countries that get "top-shelf" rankings every year from Transparency International.
In short, these cases suggest that the standard “neoliberal” approach to corruption and transparency, which emphasizes “institutional reform” at the level of individual countries, may be necessary for political development, but it is certainly not sufficient.
(c) James S. Henry 2003. Not for reproduction or other use without express consent from the author.
November 16, 2003 at 07:21 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83455f15269e200e550634d1d8833
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference First World Criminals, Third World Crimes – Recent Transnational Corruption Cases. Part I: Introduction. :