The Role of Civil Society and Patron-Client Networks in the Analysis of Corruption

Abstract

The endemic nature of corruption in developing countries and the potential damage this can cause if it remains entrenched is not in question. In the search for policy responses attention has increasingly turned to the possible role of civil society in controlling corruption. The argument is that if civil society can be strengthened and its efforts at monitoring the state encouraged, this would contribute to the eventual elimination of corruption. However, to evaluate the role of civil society in developing countries in fighting corruption, we need to ask why corruption is so endemic in these countries in the first place.