Governments under Fire: Corruption in a Globalised World

The globalisation of the last half-century has opened opportunities and improved the lives of millions of people through trade, migration and financial flows. This same globalisation, however, has provided opportunities for cross-border illicit networks to operate in dark commerce, migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and money laundering. Organised crime groups belonging to these networks have leveraged these opportunities by corrupting governments around the world. The results include, at best, poorly functioning governments and, at worst, fully captured governments. At the same time, anti-corruption has taken on a trans-national aspect, as international and regional anti-corruption agreements and free trade treaties have obligated countries to take measures against corruption that they might not take without external pressure. Furthermore, national anti-corruption laws enable countries to pursue acts of corruption beyond their geopolitical borders. Similarly, trans-national networks of journalists and organisations have joined forces to expose and protest cases of corruption; digital tools have helped in these efforts. Our section examines the cross-border effects of corruption and anti-corruption. By bringing together scholars and researchers from various fields within political science, as well as trans-disciplinary studies, this section aims to explore the corrupting consequences of transnational illicit networks and the promises and limitations of extra-national anti-corruption initiatives. We invite paper submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following panels: Cross Border corruption and anti-corruption in the digital age: Complex corruption networks often evade traditional accountability mechanisms and challenge national regulations. This requires transnational anti-corruption efforts as corruption becomes increasingly globalised; in this context, digital technologies can both facilitate corruption by enabling the seamless flow of money, influence, and power across borders, and provide powerful tools to curb corruption, particularly through AI-driven solutions and advanced big data analytics. Chairs: Fernanda Odilla (University of Bologna) and Ina Kubbe (Tel Aviv University) Unintended Consequences: Political Backlash in Anti-Corruption Efforts: This panel will examine the unintended political consequences of anti-corruption efforts, exploring how even well-designed and rigorously implemented policies can destabilise a country’s political landscape. Anti-corruption campaigns may trigger popular backlash, be used to advance populist agendas, or inadvertently contribute to increased polarisation. This panel seeks to provide insights into the complex impact of anti-corruption efforts, offering lessons on how reforms can be better managed to avoid political fragmentation. Chair: Joseph Poszgai-Alvarez (Osaka University) and Denisse Rodríguez Olivari (University of Glasgow) State Capture: Political captor groups abuse their democratically-mandated power to systematically control the allocation of state resources and to disable the institutions that are supposed to hold them to account. This raises a number of questions about the mechanisms through which democracies are captured. This panel invites contributions from scholars interested in analysing the dynamics of capture in different contexts and sectors, the conditions that exacerbate vulnerability to capture, and the routes to building democratic resilience. Co-chairs: Elizabeth David-Barrett (University of Sussex) and Tom Shipley (University of Sussex) Mafiocracy: state capture by organised crime: Organised crime groups represent a special threat to electoral democracies. In recent decades, these groups have had an increasing influence on policy and elections through bribery, threats, and violence. The 2023 assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador, ordered by a jailed member of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, demonstrates the trans-national nature of this threat. Organised criminal groups also make campaign donations and promote their own members for election. This panel explores the roles of organised crime in electoral democracies. Chair: Bonnie Palifka (Tecnologico de Monterrey) Experimental Approaches to Understanding and Countering Corruption: This panel will explore the role of experimental methods—lab, survey, and field experiments—in enhancing our understanding of corruption and evaluating anti-corruption strategies in a globalized context. Experimental research offers unique insights into the behaviors, incentives, and impacts of policies aimed at reducing corruption by employing controlled and context-specific designs. Chair: Giovanna Rodriguez-Garcia (Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga) Bridging Regulatory and Implementation Gaps in EU Anti-corruption Policy: This panel will focus on understanding domestic vulnerabilities and cross-border factors that undermine control of corruption across EU member and candidate states. We now understand corruption as a cross-border subverter of democracy and security, as opposed to the EU lifting integrity. This calls for developing a new conceptual framework to understand vulnerabilities of open societies to external subversion, the real trends of corruption across borders and what defence mechanisms can be used to uphold rule of law and public integrity in liberal democracies. Chairs: Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (LUISS Guido Carli) and Giacomo Silari (LUISS) Corruption and the Sustainable Development Goals: As the world advances toward the 2030 deadline for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the persistent and pervasive issue of corruption poses a significant threat to this global agenda. By examining corruption and SDGs from multiple perspectives, this panel aims to promote effective, lasting change in the pursuit of a more just and sustainable world, providing actionable insights for policymakers, scholars, and practitioners dedicated to advancing a corruption-free path to sustainable development. Chair: Robert Gillanders (Dublin City University) Unpacking global north-south binaries in (anti)corruption research: While there is a general consensus that corruption is a constant feature of political economies of the countries of the Global South, there is a strong colonialist gaze that marks this characterisation. This panel aims to challenge set binaries of global south and north prevalent in corruption-related discourses and policies and to show that there are many points of convergence in how (anti)corruption acts manifest themselves in practice. Chairs: Anwesha Chakraborty (University of Urbino) and Aiysha Varraich (University of Gothenburg) Sector-specific Corruption and Policy Solutions: This panel examines sector-specific corruption in a globalised context, focusing on how corruption manifests differently across countries and cultures. While globalisation fosters cross-national corruption networks, local contexts—shaped by political, economic, and cultural factors—inform how corruption is understood and addressed. The panel will explore whether it is possible to develop unified policy solutions, or if tailored, context-specific approaches are necessary to effectively combat corruption across borders in sectors like healthcare, infrastructure, and finance. Can global solutions effectively address the complexities of corruption in diverse cultural and national settings? Chair: Kristyna Basna (Czech Academy of Sciences)