Bureaucratic Corruption The Futility of Cleanups

John Mukum Mbaku writes :

Bureaucratic corruption is an outcome generated within a given set of rules. An effective normative evaluation of such an outcome can only be undertaken after a thorough understanding of the rules that generate the outcome. Thus, to understand why people engage in corruption requires an examination of the rules that regulate the socio-political behavior of individuals. Since these rules determine how individuals behave and relate to each other, they also determine the outcomes to be generated in the post-contractual society. Thus, effective corruption cleanup should not involve efforts to manipulate outcomes within rules. Instead, an effective approach should involve reform of existing rules and the subsequent selection and adoption of new rules that can generate the outcomes desired by society. Since the rules determine the incentive system that will prevail in the post-contractual society, society can effectively impose the outcomes it wants through rules design.