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Corruption, Culture and Transferability: What Can Be Learned From Australia?
Author(s) -
Larmour Peter
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.00149
Subject(s) - transferability , language change , political science , development economics , economic growth , business , public relations , economics , art , literature , human capital
The Asian financial crisis is often blamed on ‘corruption’. International banks and aid donors now promote technical assistance and training in corruption prevention, referring to the international best practice of Independent Commissions Against Corruption in Hong Kong or Sydney. However, it is often also argued that what counts as corruption is culturally specific, and that the incidence of petty corruption is related to low salaries. So lessons drawn from corruption prevention in Australia, for example, may not be transferable to other countries with different cultures and levels of income. This paper reflects on the experience of designing and teaching a course on corruption prevention for officials from developing countries in the Asia‐Pacific region. It considers what counts as ‘corruption’, identifies different approaches towards prevention, and draws some conclusions about the transferability of Australian expertise.