Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Corruption is still one of the most important issues in Polish public debate. But is the immense interest in this topic, manifested especially by politicians and media, an effect of increasing intensity of this phenomenon? Is corruption really more frequent because of social and economic transformation which undergoes Poland? Sociological research and official data, contrary to what we could expect, do not give clear answers to these questions.

At the same time in this hot atmosphere of discussions about corruption, in recent years have appeared many new institutions and solutions which aim was reducing presumed or real scale of this phenomenon. Most of them have been worked out under the influence and in accordance to the set of patterns promoted by international organizations such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations or European Union.

Hereby I would like to put the question, if these recommendations and solutions produce in fact specific and effective legal solution. This is because I believe that the main outcome of this global pressure on struggling corruption is not even a set of perfect anticorruption mechanisms, but a peculiar discourse, which paradoxically lowers prestige and effectiveness of anticorruption means. I would like to present my conclusions basing on the research made for purposes of my doctoral dissertation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper studies the regional variances of anti-corruption in China. We hypothesize that revealed corruption cases are affected by the local representation in the center, the strength of insiders and tenure durations of the provincial leadership.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Drawing on studies of risk, surveillance, organization and governmentality, this paper examines the role of calculative practices such as rankings, benchmarks and blacklists in the constitution of corruption as a space of global governance. The paper argues that these practices have helped to transform the largely inaccessible, taboo ridden and hyper complex phenomenon of corruption into an issue of considerable public concern, propelling the production and circulation of design ideals in the shape of guidelines, standards and scripts for action against corruption amongst transnational publics, and specifically multinational corporations. The paper suggest that the proliferation of calculative practices and the ensuing development of design ideals have enabled actors, who previously regarded themselves as having little interest and few stakes in anti-corruption, to take steps to detecting and preventing it. In particular, this holds true for some international organizations and international business, which have altered their traditional perceptions of corruption from being just another uncertainty to a serious risk. The paper is divided into four sections. Section I conceptualizes the role of calculative practices in the constitution of governance spaces, emphasizing their capacity to operate as technologies of distance, communication and surveillance. Section II analyzes the development of corruption and anti-corruption measurement tools since 1995. It discusses their impact in terms of framing corruption as a risk and spurring the production scripts for anti-corruption action. Section III takes a look at the intersection of one emerging mode of calculative practice in international anti-corruption - public blacklisting of corporations – with the rise of specific design ideals for corporate compliance with anti-corruption, including voluntary disclosure. Specifically, the section analyzes the World Bank’s politics of debarment and voluntary disclosure program (VDP), and the implementation of the anti-corruption agenda in Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Section IV provides some final speculations about the ways in which the intersection of calculative practices and design ideals embody particular modes of governance, such as the governance of risk and precaution.