Corruption Plots

Corruption Plots illuminates how corruption is fundamental to global storytelling about how states and elites abuse entrusted power in late capitalism. The millennial city of the global South is a charged setting for allegations of corruption, with skyscrapers, land grabs, and slum evictions invoking outrage at deepening economic polarization. Drawing on ethnography in Bengaluru and Mumbai and a cross-section of literary and cinematic stories from cities around the world, Malini Ranganathan, David L. Pike, and Sapana Doshi pay close attention to the racial, caste, class, and gender locations of the narrators, spaces, and publics imagined to be harmed by corruption. Corruption Plots demonstrates how corruption talk is leveraged to make sense of unequal spatial change and used opportunistically by those who are themselves implicated in wrongdoing. Offering a wide-ranging analysis of urban worlds, the authors reveal the ethical, spatial, and political stakes of storytelling and how vital it is to examine the corruption plot in all its contradictions.

In late 1995, the drama Heaven Above (Cangtian zaishang) debuted on Chinese TV. Featuring a villainous high-ranking government official, it was the first in a series of wildly popular corruption dramas that riveted the nation. Staging Corruption looks at the rise, fall, and reincarnation of corruption dramas and the ways in which they express the collective dreams and nightmares of China in the market-reform era. It also considers how these dramas – as products of the interplay between television stations, production companies, media regulation, and political censorship – unveil complicated relationships between power, media, and society. This book will be essential reading for those following China's ongoing struggles with the highly volatile socio-political issue of corruption.

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, Addis Ababa University (College of Business and Economics), course: Public Management and Policy, language: English, abstract: Corruption is a phenomenon with secretive nature making it difficult to research about. Land administration is one of the main economic sectors prone to higher level of corruption. The overall goal of this research was to identify the link between corruption in land title deeds registration and transfer processes and its bearing on service delivery at Sebeta town administration. In specific terms, this research was conducted with the following three aims. The first aim was understanding prevalence of corruption in land title deeds registration and transfer services of Sebeta municipality. The second aim was understanding whether service delivery was negatively impacted due to high prevalence of corruption and the last aim was consolidating possible measures stated by service seekers and officials as effective ways to prevent corruption. In this research, over eighty service seekers sampled out of community members waiting for their cases being processed at Sebeta municipality premises were interviewed. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling technique so as to identify respondents who were at the premises with the purpose of getting their property registered or transferred. From government office, officers at OEACC, Justice office, head of public service and land administration reform desk team leader were interviewed. Findings of this research indicates that majority of service seeker respondents perceive that Sebeta land administration is plagued with corruption which does not show any sign of decreasing even under the current regime which promised swiping reforms. Respondents also consider that service delivery was deteriorated due to systematic corruption engrained in the daily dealings of officers at the land administration. Involvement of middlemen in getting cases processed at the office was named one of the most worrying hinderances put on the way of other service seekers. Officers indicated that grand corruption has ceased since the reform; but ordinary citizens refute the claim, saying that local level has not seen significant reform or hope of it coming. In conclusion, there is a strong tendency to consider corruption as a normal routine by the wider public in their daily discourse. Added to this service delivery is undertaken through network of middlemen who use up majority of office hours of officers responsible for serving the public equally.

Corruption is once again high on the international policy agenda as a result of globalization, the spread of democracy, and major scandals and reform initiatives. But the concept itself has been a focus for social scientists for many years, and new findings and data take on richer meanings when viewed in the context of long-term developments and enduring conceptual debates. This compendium, a much-enriched version of a work that has been a standard reference in the field since 1970, offers concepts, cases, and fresh evidence for comparative analysis. Building on a nucleus of classic studies laying out the nature and development of the concept of corruption, the book also incorporates recent work on economic, cultural, and linguistic dimensions of the problem, as well as critical analyses of several approaches to reform. While many authors are political scientists, work by historians, economists, and sociologists are strongly represented. Two-thirds of the nearly fifty articles are based either on studies especially written or translated for this volume, or on selected journal literature published in the 1990s. The tendency to treat corruption as merely a synonym for bribery is illuminated by analyses of the diverse terminology and linguistic techniques that help distinguish corruption problems in the major languages. Recent attempts to measure corruption, and to analyze its causes and effects quantitatively are also critically examined. New contributions emphasize especially: corruption phenomena in Asia and Africa; contrasts among region and regime types; comparing U.S. state corruption incidence; European Party finance and corruption; assessments of international corruption rating project; analyses of international corruption control treaties; unintended consequences of anti-corruption efforts. Cumulatively, the book combines description richness, analytical thrust, conceptual awareness, and contextual articulation.

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films comprises 200 essays by leading film scholars analysing the most important, influential, innovative and interesting films of all time. Arranged alphabetically, each entry explores why each film is significant for those who study film and explores the social, historical and political contexts in which the film was produced. Ranging from Hollywood classics to international bestsellers to lesser-known representations of national cinema, this collection is deliberately broad in scope crossing decades, boundaries and genres. The encyclopedia thus provides an introduction to the historical range and scope of cinema produced throughout the world.