The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity: How Corruption Control Makes Government Ineffective

by Anechiarico, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780226020525
• ISBN10: 0226020525
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In this comprehensive and controversial case study of anticorruption efforts, Frank Anechiarico and James B. Jacobs show how the proliferating regulations and oversight mechanisms designed to prevent or root out corruption seriously undermine our ability to govern. By constraining decision makers' discretion, shaping priorities, and causing delays, corruption control--no less than corruption itself--has contributed to the contemporary crisis in public administration. "Anechiarico and Jacobs . . . have pushed aside the claims and posturing by officials and reformers and revealed a critical need to reevaluate just what we have and are doing to public servants, and to the public, in the name of anti-corruption."--Citylaw "A timely and very useful addition to the new debate over corruption and reform."--Michael Johnston, American Political Science Review

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

The Evolution of Corruption: From "Honest Graft" to Conflicts of Interest

The Evolution of the Anticorruption Project: From Virtue to Surveillance

Civil Service and the Anticorruption Project: Bondage to a Principle

Conflicts of Interest and Financial Disclosures: The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity

Whistleblowers: Uncovering Wrongdoing at Any Price

Internal Government Investigation: The Panopticon in New York City

State and Federal Prosecutors: Putting Public Officials on Ice

Purging Corruption from Public Contracting: Blacklists, Debarments, and the Paralysis of Procurement

Auditing and Accounting Controls: Beyond Bean Counting

Waging War Against the Inevitable

Public Administration: From Reform to Pathology

Toward a New Discourse on Corruption Control

Notes

Bibliography

Table of Cases

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.