WP 41. April 10, 2014
Gustavo H. M. de Oliveira, Institutional Corruption as a Problem of Institutional Design: A General Framework
Shortly after becoming dictator perpetuo in 44 BC, Caesar was murdered by conspirators.
Just as his name came to mean the highest office around the world and across the centuries, from Roman and Byzantine emperors through Ottoman rulers and German kaisers to the Russian tsars, so the Ides of March has long been a universally honored day of resistance and reflection. Caesar was popular; the people raised him to a corrupting height; the institutional safeguards failed. One lesson of 44 BC, or 1848 and 1917 CE, was that constructive resistance depends on criticism and self-criticism in equal measure. This lesson was learned and taught on March 15, 1783 by George Washington, a Caesar-like figure in many respects except for unbridled ambition. On that day, Washington diffused the Newburgh Conspiracy by calling for patience and the “detestation” of anyone “who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates of civil discord.”
According to Plutarch and Suetonius, the first blow in 44 BC was struck with a stylus. On the Ides of March, 2013, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics launched a Working Paper series devoted to fostering critical resistance and reflection on the subject of Institutional Corruption. The series is available here, and under our own SSRN imprint. You can also receive abstracts and links to the latest papers from SSRN.
Gustavo H. M. de Oliveira, Institutional Corruption as a Problem of Institutional Design: A General Framework
Mary Báthory Vidaver, Community Development Authorities: A Further Exploration of Institutional Corruption in Bond Finance
Chandrashekhar Krishnan, Tackling Corruption in Political Party Financing: Lessons from Global Regulatory Practices
Mihaylo Milovanovitch, Trust and Institutional Corruption: The Case of Education in Tunisia
Roberto Laver, Systemic Corruption: Considering Its Cultural Drivers in Second-Generation Reforms
Mariano Mosquera, Negotiation Games in the Fight Against Corruption
Kathrin Strobel, Arms, Exports, Influence: Institutional Corruption in the German Arms Export Regime
Oguzhan Dincer and Michael Johnston, Corruption Issues in State and Local Politics: Is Political Culture a Deep Determinant?
Simona Ross, Who Governs Global Affairs? The Role of Institutional Corruption in U.S. Foreign Policy
Malcolm S. Salter, Crony Capitalism, American Style: What Are We Talking About Here?
Meri Avetisyan and Varsenik Khachatryan, Nepotism at Schools in Armenia: A Cultural Perspective
Justin O'Brien, Fixing the Fix: Governance, Culture, Ethics, and the Extending Perimeter of Financial Regulation
Eduardo Gusmão Alves de Brito Neto, The Suspension of Preliminary Injunctions in Brazil: an Example of Institutional Corruption
Alexandra Gliga, U.S. Defense and Institutional Corruption
Eugen Dimant and Christian Deutscher, The Economics of Corruption in Sports: The Special Case of Doping
Gillian Brock and Hamish Russell, Abusive Tax Avoidance and Institutional Corruption: The Responsibilities of Tax Professionals
Jim Morris, Lost Opportunity: How Institutional Corruption Hampered Efforts to Protect Worker Health in America
Oguzhan C. Dincer and Michael Johnston, Measuring Illegal and Legal Corruption in American States: Some Results from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics Corruption in America Survey
Barbara K. Redman, Are the Biomedical Sciences Sliding Toward Institutional Corruption? And Why Didn't We Notice It?
Israel Finkelshtain, Iddo Kan, and Yoav Kislev, Two-Pronged Control of Natural Resources: Prices and Quantities with Lobbying