Government & Law

Practical Tools to Fight Government Corruption

Early in my career as a federal prosecutor I discovered that corruption in government remains a serious problem in the U.S. and, as the Ethics Director for the City of Jacksonville, I’ve come to understand that temptations to use government offices for private ends are subtle and widespread. Read more about Practical Tools to Fight Government Corruption

Beyond Saints and Villains: Internal Auditors as Whistleblowers in Government Agencies in Indonesia

by Marianna Fotaki and Ide Humantito

While societies depend on whistleblowers to publicize wrongdoings in government and commercial institutions, such employees occupy an ambivalent position in organizations. Some see them as courageous heroes but for others they are antisocial traitors. Read more about Beyond Saints and Villains: Internal Auditors as Whistleblowers in Government Agencies in Indonesia

Can Proportionality Distinguish Quid Pro Quo Corruption?

by Christopher Robertson

Kudos to Maggie McKinley, Climenko Fellow and former Lab Fellow, and to Network Fellow Thomas Groll for an impressive blogpost. They argue in a mixed-methods design—drawing on both qualitative data and formal analysis—that much of what lobbyists do isn't really quid pro quo corruption, notwithstanding the appearances. Read more about Can Proportionality Distinguish Quid Pro Quo Corruption?

The Relationship Market: How Modern Lobbying Gets Done

by Maggie McKinley and Thomas Groll

I. Introduction

The 114th Congress is exceptional in many ways—it includes the youngest woman ever elected to the House, for one—but its first day looked like the first day of any other new Congress: much like the first day of school. Read more about The Relationship Market: How Modern Lobbying Gets Done

Measuring Illegal and Legal Corruption in American States: Some Results from the Corruption in America Survey

by Oguzhan Dincer and Michael Johnston

Although corruption is not endemic in America as it is in several other countries, it does exist. Read more about Measuring Illegal and Legal Corruption in American States: Some Results from the Corruption in America Survey

A Crook is a Crook . . . But is He Still a Crook Abroad? On the Effect of Immigration on Destination-Country Corruption

by Eugen Dimant

Lab Fellow Eugen Dimant discusses his exciting new paper on the impact of migration flows on institutional quality and corruption in this new blog post.¹

Whistleblower Who Exposed White House Tampering with Climate Science Dies

by Paul Thacker, re-blogged with the author's permission from Scientific American

Rick Piltz passed away on Saturday, October 18, 2014. He spent decades working in the federal government and state government in Texas, and was a prominent whistleblower during the Bush administration. He later founded Climate Science Watch.

Republic, Unfrozen

by Christopher Phillips, adapted by the author from his blog item on the Huffington Post

For over seven years, I've been gallivanting across the fruited plain holding mini Constitutional Conventions with motley Americans. Many participants in these “Constitution Cafés” have joined the growing hue and cry across the political spectrum for a new Constitutional Convention to introduce amendments to enact campaign finance reform and do away with corporate personhood.

Teachout Talks Corruption

by Jonathan Bruno

The crisis of democracy in the United States is not a crisis of partisanship, said Zephyr Teachout, but a crisis of corruption. Happily, reform is within reach. It starts with reclaiming some history. Read more about Teachout Talks Corruption

Too Big To Fail or Too Hard To Remember: James M. Landis and Regulatory Design

by Justin O'Brien

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of James M. Landis, one of the most pivotal entrepreneurs in regulatory history. A key architect of the Securities and Exchange Commission, established eighty years ago, and former Dean of Harvard Law School (1937-1946), Landis and his conception of regulatory purpose has largely been relegated in part because of an investigation into his personal tax affairs that did much to besmirch his legacy. In advance of a major panel discussion at Harvard Law School on November 24, 2014, Justin O’Brien evaluates the abiding strength of the approach to regulatory design advanced by Landis, drawing on a major article on “too big to fail” just published in Law and Financial Markets Review and his monograph The Triumph, Tragedy and Lost Legacy of James M Landis (Hart Publishing, 2014).