KickBack - The Global Anticorruption Podcast

For our first episode of 2026, regular host Liz David-Barrett is joined by Anna Persson, associate professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Anna draws on extensive field research to challenge simplistic understandings of political will, and explore systemic corruption as a complex collective action problem. Anna examines how moral hazard and adverse selection shape leadership behaviour, and how corruption becomes "expected behaviour" in societies where the high individual costs of resisting systemic corruption make transparency measures insufficient. The episode also challenges the "coherent state" model, examining how competing authorities and variations in state effectiveness within countries impact anticorruption efforts. Links to Anna's research: Why Anticorruption Reforms Fail—Systemic Corruption as a Collective Action Problem https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2012.01604.x?saml_referrer The Power of Ideational Reach: A New Approach to State Capacity https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gove.70020 Responsive and Responsible Leaders: A Matter of Political Will? https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/responsive-and-responsible-leaders-a-matter-of-political-will/DD7C9258D3E95E8B79CB70FA10126275

Liz David-Barrett speaks with human rights and international law expert Naomi Roht-Arriaza, about the intersection of grand corruption and human rights. Naomi shares how her decades of work on transitional justice led her to confront the blocking of post-conflict progress by state capture, often involving alliances between organized crime, political elites, and economic interests. The discussion examines how corruption violates a broad range of human rights, why giving victims legal standing in corruption cases matters, and what reparations beyond financial compensation might look like. Naomi also addresses the inadequacy of current international legal frameworks that assume states will combat their own corruption, and calls for breaking down silos between human rights, anti-corruption, and environmental advocates to tackle these interconnected challenges. Links to Naomi’s research: Fighting Grand Corruption: Transnational and Human Rights Approaches in Latin America and Beyond - https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fighting-grand-corruption/4B738654046BEA6F0F2FF336BEA12112 The right to be free of corruption: A new frontier in anti-corruption approaches through national courts - https://cdn.sanity.io/files/1f1lcoov/production/863973678d954b32539d37b070dbf556776b8e67.pdf

Why do voters sometimes support corrupt politicians? And can putting forward women candidates help parties recover from corruption scandals? In this episode, regular host Liz David-Barrett speaks with Emily Elia about her experimental research on voter behaviour and corruption in Latin American democracies. The conversation delves into the "feminization strategy", examining the level to which deploying women candidates after corruption scandals actually works to restore party credibility. The conversation also explores emerging questions about who becomes an anti-corruption fighter in politics and whether voters can tell genuine reformers from those just paying lip service to clean government. Read more about Emily's research into gender stereotypes and electoral accountability here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-024-09943-9 And on the role of ideological proximity to the opposition in "corruption voting" here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379422001019?via%3Dihub

Hungary, once seen as a democratic success story is now widely recognized as one of the EU's most corrupt member states. Regular KB host Liz David-Barrett sits down with József Péter Martin and Áron Hajnal to examine how Viktor Orbán built a system of state capture, and why the EU struggled to respond. They discuss their research evaluating the effectiveness of EU conditionality measures, the challenges of tackling corruption when it's built into the regime itself, and what might happen in Hungary's crucial April 2026 elections. Find Áron and József’s article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10999922.2025.2554409?scroll=top&needAccess=true#d1e186

How do multinational consulting firms enable state capture? In this episode, regular KB host Liz David-Barrett chats with Devi Pillay about her research on the role of McKinsey & Co.'s involvement in the capture of South Africa under President Zuma. Drawing on evidence from the Zondo Commission, Devi describes how consulting firms worked with politically connected local partners to extract billions in fees from state-owned enterprises, while providing misleading advice that facilitated further corruption. Liz and Devi also discuss the vital role of investigative journalists and whistleblowers in exposing these arrangements, the devastating impact on South Africa's infrastructure and economy, and the mixed accountability outcomes for the firms involved. Find Devi Pillay’s working paper for GI ACE here: https://giace.org/resources/consulting-firms-corruption-and-state-capture/ Find similar themes on South Africa's state capture in episode 129. This research is part of the Governance & Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI ACE) programme which generates actionable evidence that policymakers, practitioners and advocates can use to design and implement more effective anti-corruption initiatives. This GI ACE project is funded by UK International Development. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies.