Abstract
This article contributes to the emerging research agenda of anti-corruption. Specifically, it enquires into the factors that are beneficial for the fight against corruption by comparing corruption and anti-corruption in the Republic of China on Taiwan (henceforth: Taiwan) and South Korea (henceforth: Korea). These countries not only display considerable similarity in their context variables, but also began to implement anti-corruption programs after democratization. The study finds that democratization alone is not enough to initiate anti-corruption programs, but needs to be paired with or followed by a change in ruling parties. It also illustrates how a fundamental mismatch between the interests of the dominant political actors and the institutions that incentivize corrupt behaviour benefits anti-corruption. Counter-intuitively, this tends not to be the case when political corruption occurs in transient networks of little complexity, but when the new rulers are faced with sophisticated, complex and deeply embedded structures that make access for “outsiders” difficult.
Zusammenfassung
Der vorliegende Artikel möchte einen Beitrag zur gegenwärtigen Diskussion über Korruptionsbekämpfung leisten. Im Speziellen untersucht der Beitrag dabei die Faktoren, die die Bekämpfung von Korruption begünstigen, indem vergleichend Korruption und Korruptionsbekämpfung in der Republik China auf Taiwan (im Folgenden: Taiwan) und Südkorea (im Folgenden: Korea) untersucht werden. Beide Länder weisen nicht nur bemerkenswerte Gemeinsamkeiten bei den Kontextvariablen auf, sondern begannen ihre Korruptionsbekämpfungsmaßnahmen nach dem Demokratisierungsprozess zu implementieren. Der Beitrag kommt jedoch zu dem Ergebnis, dass Demokratisierung alleine nicht ausreicht, um Korruptionsbekämpfungsprogramme zu initiieren. Vielmehr müssen diese mit einem Regierungswechsel einhergehen bzw. ihm folgen. Der Beitrag unterstreicht zudem, dass Korruptionsbekämpfung von einem Missverhältnis zwischen den Interessen dominierender politischer Akteure und den Institutionen, die Korruption begünstigen, profitiert. Entgegen der Erwartung ist dies jedoch nicht der Fall, wenn Korruption in kurzlebigen und wenig komplexen Netzwerken erfolgt, sondern gerade wenn eine neue Regierung mit ausdifferenzierten, komplexen und tief verwurzelten Strukturen konfrontiert wird, die den Zugang für Außenseiter erschweren.
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Göbel, C. (2014). Warriors unchained: critical junctures and anticorruption in Taiwan and South Korea. In: Debiel, T., Gawrich, A. (eds) (Dys-)Functionalities of Corruption. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-04633-0_10
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