KickBack - The Global Anticorruption Podcast

This week Liz David-Barrett is joined by expert researchers Monika Bauhr and Marcia Grimes from the Quality of Government Institute, where they conduct and promote research on the causes, consequences and nature of Good Governance. This episode addresses the multifaceted nature of corruption and the challenges of promoting accountability in democratic systems. Monika and Marcia cover a range of topics, including the implications of transparency as an accountability mechanism, the role of elites in maintaining the status quo, and the relationship between women's representation and corruption reduction. The discussion acknowledges the challenges in measuring corruption, while highlighting innovative methodological approaches that challenge simplistic assumptions, to better understand the dynamics between democracy and corruption. Learn more about the Quality of Government Institute here: https://www.gu.se/en/quality-government And find some of Monika and Marcia's related publications here: Bauhr, M., & Grimes, M. (2014). Indignation or Resignation: The Implications of Transparency for Societal Accountability. Governance, 27(2), 291–320. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12033 Bauhr, Monika and Marcia Grimes. 2021. “Democracy and Quality of Government” in Bauhr, Monika, Andreas Bågenholm, Marcia Grimes and Bo Rothstein (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Quality of Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/33431 Bauhr, M., & Charron, N. (2018). Insider or Outsider? Grand Corruption and Electoral Accountability. Comparative Political Studies, 51(4), 415–446. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041401771025 Bauhr, M., Charron, N., & Wängnerud, L. (2024a). What candidate will fight corruption? Gender and anti-corruption stereotypes across European countries. European Political Science Review, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773924000134 Bauhr, M., Charron, N., & Wängnerud, L. (2024b). Will Women’s Representation Reduce Bribery? Trends in Corruption and Public Service Delivery Across European Regions. Political Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-024-09925-x % year impact factor Cornell, A., & Grimes, M. (2023). Brokering Bureaucrats: How Bureaucrats and Civil Society Facilitate Clientelism Where Parties are Weak. Comparative Political Studies, 56(6), 788-823. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140221115171 Larsson, F., & Grimes, M. (2023). Societal Accountability and Grand Corruption: How Institutions Shape Citizens’ Efforts to Shape Institutions. Political Studies, 71(4), 1321-1346. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217211067134

This week, Dr. Florencia Guerzovich, Independent Researcher and Evaluator, and Tom Shipley, Research Fellow for the Governance & Integrity, Anti-Corruption Evidence programme at the CSC, explore whether the corruption field has a learning problem. Against the backdrop of debates around 'success' and 'failure' in anti-corruption, they talk to Professor Robert Barrington about approaches to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL). The discussion covers the basics of what MEL is and the role it has to play in building knowledge on anti-corruption effectiveness; the current state of practice for MEL; what can be learnt from other sectors; and what changes might be needed to shift towards more adaptable, learning-focused approaches. Find Tom’s paper on this topic for U4 here: https://www.u4.no/publications/evaluating-anti-corruption-interventions-the-state-of-practice And the paper discussed by Florencia on social accountability here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4606929

How can the renewable energy sector learn from the corruption risks that have plagued the extractive industries for decades to ensure a just energy transition? Mark Robinson, Executive Director of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and Maja de Vibe, the Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Statkraft discuss their new working paper ‘Good governance and the just transition: Implications for renewable energy companies’, published by the Basel Institute. Mark and Maja discuss the critical corruption and governance risks facing the renewables sector; the commonalities and differences in risk between this sector and extractives corruption; and what role collective action and multi-stakeholder engagement could play in the governance of the sector in the future. You can find their paper here: https://baselgovernance.org/publications/wp-53

Dan Hough, Prof. of Politics at the University of Sussex, and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption, discusses his new book Foul Play: Tackling Football’s Integrity Problem. Dan builds on analytical frameworks from the corruption and governance fields to analyse the integrity challenges facing the beautiful game, on and off the pitch. Dan examines football as an important social institution and makes connections to broader debates about how to encourage integrity. You can find Dan's new book here: https://agendapub.com/page/detail/foul-play/?k=9781788217637