6 Institutionalized Corruption and the Kleptocratic State

Abstract

Corruption and governance are increasingly popular topics for analysis. In contrast to the mainstream discussion of corruption,1 we propose that patterns of corruption must be analysed in their political context because corruption is endogenous to the political process. Drawing from the literature on the economics of conflict and appropriation, the economics of organized crime, and the political economy of dictatorships, we derive the endogenous genesis of the "kleptocratic state" from a state of pure anarchy.2 Warlords and their collaborators emerge as successful adaptations to the game of anarchy and they seek to usurp one another in a quest for hegemonic rule.

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