Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Wealth, power, and corruption
- 2 The international setting: power, consensus, and policy
- 3 Participation, institutions, and syndromes of corruption
- 4 Influence Markets: influence for rent, decisions for sale
- 5 Elite Cartels: how to buy friends and govern people
- 6 Oligarchs and Clans: we are family – and you're not
- 7 Official Moguls: reach out and squeeze someone
- 8 From analysis to reform
- Appendix A Countries in each cluster and distances from statistical cluster centers
- Appendix B Statistical indicators for country clusters
- References
- Index
7 - Official Moguls: reach out and squeeze someone
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Wealth, power, and corruption
- 2 The international setting: power, consensus, and policy
- 3 Participation, institutions, and syndromes of corruption
- 4 Influence Markets: influence for rent, decisions for sale
- 5 Elite Cartels: how to buy friends and govern people
- 6 Oligarchs and Clans: we are family – and you're not
- 7 Official Moguls: reach out and squeeze someone
- 8 From analysis to reform
- Appendix A Countries in each cluster and distances from statistical cluster centers
- Appendix B Statistical indicators for country clusters
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction: power, impunity, and the risk of kleptocracy
In Influence Market societies powerful private interests threaten the integrity of public institutions, but may be checked by those institutions and by competing parties and groups. Elite Cartels stave off rising competition by building corrupt networks, but they are restrained by the need to balance off the interests of various elites and by the fundamental goal of maintaining the status quo. Oligarchs face few constraints but still must manage conflict among themselves and find ways to protect their gains. But where state elites operate in a setting of very weak institutions, little political competition, and expanding economic opportunities, the stage is set for corruption with impunity. There Official Moguls – powerful political figures and their favorites – hold all the cards.
In China, Kenya, Indonesia, and countries like them, corruption is often rapacious and involves the unilateral abuse of political power rather than quid pro quo exchanges between public and private interests. Official theft of public land and resources, businesses owned by politicians and military figures, or smuggling and tax-evasion schemes organized by bureaucrats and including favored business people are not frequent in Influence Market or Elite Cartel societies. In Oligarch and Clan cases deals on such a scale are difficult to sustain in an uncertain and contentious climate, and require protection from forces in the private realm. In Official Mogul cases, however, there is little to prevent ambitious political figures or their personal clients from plundering society and the economy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Syndromes of CorruptionWealth, Power, and Democracy, pp. 155 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005