FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
Thomas Duke Labik Amanquandor: Understanding Failing Anti-corruption Regimes

Abstracts:

Article 1: “Limitations of the international approach to anti-corruption: a systematic review of South Africa’s compelling case of failing anti-corruption” is published in the Journal of Crime, Law and Social Change. It addresses the questions “What are the key challenges facing South Africa’s anti-corruption regime?”

Abstract:

In the Global South, anti-corruption initiatives continue to fail despite varying commitments to the international anti-corruption agenda. Concurrently, as this study demonstrates, researchers investigating this paradox appear confined within orthodox explanations for failing anti-corruption efforts. Through a systematic review of 58 studies, this paper demonstrates that South Africa’s anti-corruption corpora from 1995 to 2022 fall to this critique. By employing socio-legal theoretical perspectives, the paper elucidates how and why the orthodoxy dominates the corpora and subsequently suggests a more nuanced understanding of the country’s ongoing failure to combat corruption. For example, the paper argues that the intricacies of South Africa’s corruption challenge the perspective that anti-corruption measures fail simply due to widespread rule-breaking. Through the prism of legal pluralism, this paper demonstrates that adherence to rules is indeed prevalent in South Africa, albeit often not aligned with formal state anti-corruption legislation and regulations. Finally, the paper posits innovative approaches to enhance and broaden our comprehension of why anti-corruption efforts fail, especially in the Global South.

Article 2: “Understanding The Gap Between Anti-Corruption Policy Design And Local Realities: The Case of South Africa and its National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2020-2030)” is under review at African Studies. It addresses the question “How does the policy design of South Africa’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 2020-2030 align with the country’s local realities?”

Abstract:

This article investigates local anti-corruption perspectives in South Africa, contrasting them with the frameworks underpining the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2020-2030) (NACS). It seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of the design-reality gap characterising ineffective anti-corruption interventions in systemic corrupt contexts. Through key informant interviews and document analysis, this study suggests that the NACS offers a paradigmatic approach to combating systemic corruption in South Africa, relying primarily on state modernisation interventions and principal-agent accountability models. Thus, it focuses mainly on legal and administrative reforms and enhancements of social accountability. Despite the ineffectiveness of these measures over the past three decades, many public officials still perceive them as necessary, albeit solely insufficient. They recognise the critical role of enforcement and oversight, but emphasise that these do not address the root causes of systemic corruption. Consequently, they advocate for a more flexible strategy integrating state modernisation with efforts to build social trust and foster voluntary compliance with anti-corruption norms. Officials recommend norm-nurturing strategies to create informal constraints against corruption and highlight the need for localised anti-corruption efforts to ensure greater responsiveness and contextual sensitivity. This study refines the concept of the design-reality gap by theorising it as a tension between paradigmaticism and pragmatism in developing anti-corruption interventions. Local realities demand pragmatic rather than paradigmatic anti-corruption interventions.

Article 3: “How the Design-Reality Gap Emerges: The Case of South Africa’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2020-2030)” is a full draft awaiting submission to a jounral, preferably “International Review of Public Policy”. It addresses the question “How was South Africa’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 2020-2030 developed? and how did the formulation process influence its alignment with local realities?

Abstract:

Previous research suggests that South Africa’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020-2030 (NACS) has a design-reality gap. This article, through key informant interviews and document analysis, examines the formulation process of the NACS to understand how this gap emerged. It draws theoretical insights from the policy learning literature, focusing on how learning contexts shape design outcomes. My findings suggest that the NACS was developed through a three-phase process—preliminary diagnosis, public consultation, and finalization.

While the preliminary diagnosis phase was comprehensive, it oversimplified the complexities of the country’s systemic corruption, inadequately incorporated local realities, and consolidated support for the pre-existing anti-corruption policy paradigm. Public consultations were organized and designed in a way that stifled contestation of the policy proposals developed through the preliminary diagnosis and restricted deeper exploration of local realities. The consolidation and finalization phases of the strategy adopted an authoritative approach rather than an open and iterative process. As a result, it failed to integrate the input gathered during the public consultations effectively. These findings contribute to our understanding of how social learning settings during the formulation process shape policy design. It suggests that policy designs are shaped through multiple and evolving learning context during policy formulation.