7. The OECD Convention and Beyond: State-Powered Coalition Building in a Broken World

In the period 1994–1997 the foundations of the global anti-corruption governance were laid out. As this chapter shows, the success of the anti-corruption endeavor was to a large extent determined by a systematic approach of state-sponsored coalition building. Non-state actors contributed to the process of coalition-building, but much of what they achieved was shaped by previous efforts of state actors, in particular the United States. The instrumental use of venues and publicity contributed to the success of the OECD anti-bribery initiative. The advancement of talks at the OECD led member states to introduce the topic of corrupt practices in the OAS, the CoE and the EU. The formal agreements reached at other organizations then provided the legal and discursive underpinnings for the re-introduction of the subject at the UN. Building on Chapter 6, the first part of this chapter zooms in on the talks at the OECD, while the second part zoom out to show the bigger picture of how, in relation to progress at the OECD, the subject of corruption was introduced in regional organizations. In this way the chapter strikes a balance between showing how the social construction of problems is negotiated within and between organizations.