Mining Mirror February 2018 | Page 34

Business
NEW ! confronted by our societies and those scandals that enrage us . While producing various levels and forms of popular dissatisfaction and protest , both situations are the consequence of corruption in the system , and both challenge the leadership by reducing the amount of political support that keeps them in power .
The third scenario of stress for the political system comes in the form of external disturbances . These are events that occur in national and international society and modify the level of corruption tolerance among its members , producing new patterns of behaviour
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and organisational arrangements . The FCPA and the UNCAC are obvious examples , best manifested by the impact of the international anti-corruption movement on national legislation . By reacting to the persistence of underdeveloped integrity systems , any decrease in external corruption tolerance tends to increase the level of stress over local leaders , influence popular approval , diminish political support and threaten the corruption status quo .
Leaders push back
While all three scenarios represent a challenge to government stability due to the presence of corruption in the country , each one of them embodies a distinct set of wishes , anxieties , and demands from society , and therefore they are met with different responses . Straightforward strategies under each scenario will include the provision of subsidised goods or the adoption of market reforms to boost a corruptiondamaged economy ; the swift prosecution of corrupt bureaucrats or the creation of special investigatory commissions to address scandals ; and / or the production of new anti-corruption
[ 32 ] MINING MIRROR FEBRUARY 2018
legislation to comply with international conventions .
What do all these measures have in common ? Regardless of their normative benefits and potential , they are also vulnerable to symbolic adoption and political instrumentalisation , becoming in such situations mere coping strategies rather than real anti-corruption measures . For honest leaders , either case provides short-term political capital . For corrupt leaders , only the latter approach secures the stability of the status quo regarding illicit gains . This is the tragedy ( and the explanation for the common failure ) of anti-corruption implementation .
In short , different politically stressful scenarios caused by corruption do not only require different approaches from the government , but they also offer leaders different ways to harvest support while keeping the corruption status quo in place .
With these basic premises , then , we can finally begin thinking politically about anti-corruption without taxing the forces of reform with unnecessary cynicism . We do this by honestly and clearly reflecting on political channels in a way that not only accepts , but embraces , the tenets of political capital , political will and agency .
Joseph Pozsgai Alvarez is an international associate at the University of Tsukuba in Tokyo , Japan . + 81 80 4337 2367 | jpozsgai @ dailycorruption . info