A CANDIDATE FOR RELEGATION? CORRUPTION, GOVERNANCE APPROACHES AND THE (RE)CONSTRUCTION OF POST-WAR STATES

The article discusses the place of anti-corruption in the post-war donor agendas. It uses examples from a set of country reports to demonstrate the divergence between the rhetoric and reality of donor-led initiatives, and the delivery of reform through the governance approach of which addressing corruption has been a part. It suggests that dealing with corruption has often been diluted or downplayed within the wider approach. Within the debate to revise that approach, corruption may be relegated further down the agenda. While recognising the complexity of the post-war reform process, and the demands from the multiple tasks and volume of funding being addressed by a range of domestic and external actors, the article suggests that failure to address corruption within any new approach in favour of what are considered more pressing reform issues may well cause problems for the future. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.