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The Review of International Organizations

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01-03-2010

Interactions among intergovernmental organizations in the anti-corruption realm

Authors: Nathaniel Gest, Alexandru Grigorescu

Published in: The Review of International Organizations | Issue 1/2010

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Abstract

This study focuses on interactions between intergovernmental organizations (IOs) working in the anti-corruption realm. It investigates the factors that enhance IO cooperation. Based on expectations derived primarily from the organization theory literature and, more specifically, from exchange theory, we develop a set of hypotheses regarding the relevance of IO financial resources, expertise, prestige, and bureaucratic culture on the likelihood that IOs will engage in cooperative behavior. The study tests these hypotheses on the formal and informal collaborative networks formed between seventeen IOs engaged in anti-corruption work. The results of the tests offer support for most of the hypotheses and suggest several additional arguments explaining the likelihood of inter-organizational collaboration.

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We asked officials not to count communications dealing with organizational issues regarding formal forums (discussed below).

It must be noted that virtually all IOs now have the majority of their anti-corruption experts working at their headquarters. The OSCE appears to be the exception to this rule as the organization has a much larger proportion of staff working in the field than other IOs. This may be one of the reasons why the organization has not been very involved in anti-corruption collaborations with other organizations.

The study is based on approximately two dozen interviews conducted with IOs officials involved in the anti-corruption realm between May 2005 and October 2007. The issue of collaboration with other officials within their organization and with other organizations is a sensitive one for IO officials. In order to discuss freely these questions most interviewees preferred that their names not be made public.

The relationship between IO officials and such internal investigators is perhaps best reflected by the physical bounderies that exist among them. In many IOs where we conducted interviews the offices of internal investigators are separated from other offices in the building by steel doors and combination locks.

See, e.g, International Group for Anti-Corruption Coordination, Report on the Second United Nations Interagency Anti-Corruption Co-ordination Meeting, Vienna, 1–2 July, 2002, at http://www.igac.net/pdf/2nd_interagency_meeting.pdf (last accessed August 24, 2009).

This argument is supported by the visualization of the two types of networks in the anti-corruption realm (Figs. 1 and 2).

The links between IOs that are based on their participation in the International Group for Anti-Corruption Collaboration are not represented in Fig. 1. This is because, with the exception of the OAS, all IOs have participated in this forum. The addition of IGAC in Fig. 1 would not have altered the structure of the network but would have cluttered the image considerably with one additional link between virtually each dyad of IOs.

We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for suggesting this measure as well as some of the tests used in this study. The measure was developed based on data from IO websites and interviews with IO officials. It considered the listings of IOs involved in formal meetings as well as the declared frequency of meetings within forums.

The data were based on information from Union of International Associations (2007) and from IO websites.

We considered the beginning of an IO’s formal anti-corruption work as the year in which it established an anti-corruption department, or adopted a convention, a formal declaration or policy focusing specifically on this issue. The data for staff engaged in anti-corruption work was collected through interiews with IO officials from the seventeen IOs between 2005 and 2007.

While in some cases IOs were mentioned in the press as a result of mistakes that could diminish their prestige, such instances were very rare. The vast majority of articles covered accomplishements of the organizations. We therefore considered the total number of articles mentioning the IO as reflective of the IO’s prestige.

This was an argument that our interlocutors from IOs made, in private, many times during our interviews.

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Title: Interactions among intergovernmental organizations in the anti-corruption realm
Authors: Nathaniel Gest
Alexandru Grigorescu
Publication date: 01-03-2010
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: The Review of International Organizations / Issue 1/2010
Print ISSN: 1559-7431
Electronic ISSN: 1559-744X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-009-9070-9

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