Political corruption ‐ the misuse of public office or public responsibility for private (personal or sectional) gain ‐ has been an important theme of the neo‐liberal policies of adjustment, conditionality and democratization in Africa. Having identified the state as ‘the problem’, and liberalization and democratization as ‘the solution’ to that problem, it was inevitable that efforts to eradicate and control the widespread corruption characterising post‐colonial politics would be given a high priority by ‘the donors’. From the outset, proponents of structural reform linked political corruption to authoritarianism as an explanation of developmental failure, thereby identifying the arguments for democratization and ‘good governance’ with those for liberalization. This paper explores the way in which corruption has been understood in this ‘governance’ agenda and the efforts that have been made to control it by improving institutional performance and policing ‐ greater transparency and accountability, more ef...

Misunderstanding African Politics: Corruption & the Governance Agenda

Active citizenship and local governance: political and geographical dimensions

Codes of Conduct

Over the last decades scholars have been devoting more and more attention to differences and similarities between public and private sector organizations. Relatively underrepresented, when compared to studies on organizational status and management, are comparative empirical studies on the differences and similarities between the central values of public and private sector organizations. This article presents an overview of the academic debate on differences and similarities between the morals and values of public and private sector organizations. Public and private sector values derived from Administrative Ethics and Business Ethics literature are compared, as well as values that are mentioned in public and private sector codes of conduct. In addition, intra-sector comparisons between the values derived from literature reviews and those in codes are conducted. After the distinguished values are weighted, combined and supplemented, taking into account empirical research on public and private sector values as well, a definitive 'value panorama' is presented as a basis for empirical comparative research. Implications and strategies for future research are presented. INTRODUCTION Integrity and value-based perspectives occupy an increasingly prominent place in organizational studies, within both Public Administration and Business Administration (see e.g. Huberts & Van den Heuvel 1999; Kaptein & Wempe 2002; Paine 1994; Seeger 1997; Van Luijk & Schilder 1998). However, little comparative empirical research has been done on the prominence and content of organizational values in public and private sector organizations. In discussions about the differences between government and business, normative arguments prevail and empirical arguments are scarce. It is a debate with an ideological twist (cf. Noordegraaf & Abma 2003: 857). This article aims to offer a starting point for more comparative empirical work on organizational values. Values mentioned in the separate bodies of Administrative Ethics and Business Ethics literature and in organizational codes of conduct are studied and compared, enabling an analysis of the differences and similarities between the values of government and business and the way in which they relate to one another. It should be noted that this is a somewhat limited perspective. After all, values mentioned in academic literature and codes are sometimes more 'should be' than 'actual' values. However, the existing empirical research on public and private sector values, which is in most cases fragmented and incomparable, will be taken into account when the definitive value panorama is constructed. The panorama can be used as a research tool that enables more systematic and grounded empirical comparative research than the empirical research that has been conducted so far. The remainder of this article is divided into five sections. Section two examines the meaning of some of the basic research concepts that are used in this article: ethics, morals, values, norms and integrity. Section three describes two contrasting views on the differences and similarities between public and private sector values and the way they are related to each other. The fourth section presents an overview of prominent public sector values, derived from academic literature and codes of conduct. Section five gives a similar overview for the private sector. Section six discusses the differences and similarities between the values of government and business and then presents, as a first typology based upon the academic literature review, a public- private value continuum. Then an overview of existing empirical research on public and private sector values is presented. The empirical research is used to enhance the list of values derived from the literature review. This article concludes with a list of values as a survey research tool and an elaborated 'value panorama'. CENTRAL CONCEPTS: ETHICS, MORALS, VALUES, NORMS AND INTEGRITY In the debate on organizational values the content of the central concepts often leads to confusion. …

Central values of government and business: Differences, similarities and conflicts

Elected representatives in many countries are legally allowed to carry out (un)paid jobs in addition to their political mandate, often referred to as ‘moonlighting’. Despite the important selection and incentive effects such outside positions might engender, academic studies evaluating the prevalence, desirability and/or consequences of politicians' moonlighting have remained relatively scarce; often due to severe data restrictions. In recent years, however, more stringent disclosure rules have increased data availability, and large-sample analyses are becoming increasingly feasible. Besides surveying recent empirical contributions to this developing research field, this paper also outlines unresolved issues and thereby develops an agenda for future enquiry.

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Moonlighting Politicians: A Survey and Research Agenda

This chapter is concerned with the de®nition and regulation of proper standards of conduct in the British Parliament. Our purposes are to explore the limits and advantages of political self-regulation as a means of combating corruption and lesser evils such as slackness and ethical lassitude in public life, and the conditions in which self-regulation can be eective. Although our focus is on the British Parliament it is hoped that some points of more general application can be drawn from Britain's recent history of parliamentary self-regulation. Self-regulation can be a more eective device for controlling activity than externally imposed regulation, but only if the body in question is genuinely committed to upholding proper standards of conduct. First, a self-regulating body derives status, respect and self-respect from the fact that it is trusted to regulate itself, and these considerations may provide the motivation for the body to make a system of self-regulation work, improving it where necessary to avoid having control transferred to an outside body. Second, a body in charge of its own standards and their enforcement is well placed to ®nd appropriate and workable methods to maintain standards, whereas externally imposed regulation may turn out to be inappropriate, in ̄exible or unworkable. But self-regulation works best where there is (merited) public con®dence in the system, a degree of external involvement and separation or independence from the aected interests. Standards and principles need to be clear, appropriate sanctions must be available, the system should be responsive to changing expectations and circumstances, and there must be eective public accountability. In considering the working of the British Parliament's system of selfregulation we shall bear these points in mind.

Regulating the Conduct of Mps. the British Experience of Combating Corruption

Citizenship has increasingly attracted the attention of politicians, public figures, political scientists and academic lawyers in the last decade or so. This may be seen from the range of those who went to press on the subject in 1989 and 1990. Douglas Hurd, then Home Secretary, and a number of other Conservative ministers began to extol the virtues of 'active citizenship' as a way of overcoming the lack of a sense of responsibility to the community, lawlessness and overdependence on the state. Paddy Ashdown advocated a 'Citizens' Britain' of free, participating, secure individuals in place of what he saw as a 'Citadel Britain' of oppressed, stressed people and a closed political system.' In April 1990 the Prince of Wales launched his 'Volunteers' scheme, under which young people would have opportunities to contribute to the public welfare and learn the value of participation and the feeling of belonging to the community through voluntary work. The Speaker's Commission on Citizenship put in a plea for the encouragement of citizenship through education in schools, through training of public servants to understand the duties of the state to its citizens, and through voluntary service to the community (the Commission was associated with the Prince's Trust launch of the 'Volunteers' scheme). Citizenship is to become a cross-curricular subject in the national curriculum. The wide appeal of the concept derives in part from the fact that it is non-partisan, not associated with any particular political doctrine. The political parties each have a different vision of precisely what citizenship involves but they are all broadly agreed that it is a good thing and agree in general terms at least on its basic ingredients. Although, as we shall see, citizenship has much to do with the individual rights of citizens, the concept lacks the implication of liberal individualism often associated with 'human rights' and found objectionable by many on the political left. Although it is often taken to imply that the citizen is entitled to 'social rights', it does not immediately conjure up a picture of socialist collectivism which would alienate those on the right. It does imply a responsibility to the community and appeals therefore to thinkers on the right of the political spectrum concerned about 'active

Dawn Oliver

Papers

Regulating the Conduct of Mps. the British Experience of Combating Corruption

Active Citizenship in the 1990s

Constitutionalism and the Abolition of the Office of Lord Chancellor

The judge over your shoulder

The Committee on Standards in Public Life: Regulating the Conduct of Members of Parliament