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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Roots of African Corruption
Author:Ellis, StephenISNI
Year:2006
Periodical:Current History (ISSN 0011-3530)
Volume:105
Issue:691
Period:May
Pages:203-208
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:corruption
Economics and Trade
Law, Human Rights and Violence
Politics and Government
Abstract:Corruption is notoriously hard to measure or even to define, and therefore it is impossible to say for certain whether corruption in Africa is increasing or whether it is worse than in other places. What can be said is that it has become astonishingly brazen in recent years, with senior officials and even heads of State quite openly flouting their own countries' laws and a range of international diplomatic and legal conventions. Evidence suggests that outrageously corrupt practices have become routine at the very heart of government in some of the continent's most important countries. Corruption has become a way of life, a mode of business and politics. To understand the political economy of corruption, it needs to be situated in a specific historical context. Corruption has deep roots and in Africa's case, the matters to be considered include a history of power organized on a basis rather different from that in Europe or North America. A moment in Africa's history that is particularly relevant for this discussion was the imposition in colonial times of territorial, bureaucratically governed States that aspired to establish the rule of law. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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