Title: Assessing susceptibility to corruption in environmental and rural policy making using quantitative network analysis: socio-informatics in the service of the judiciary and policy consulting

Authors: Nicolas D. Hasanagas

Addresses: Goettingen University, Germany

Abstract: The exchange of favorable material resources indicates an active or passive susceptibility to corruption: potential to corrupt others (pc) and corruptibility (cty) respectively. The aim of this analysis is to formulate a typology of factors which make organizations susceptible to corruption when participating in rural and environmental policy networks. Such a typology can be useful for a more effective planning of judicial investigations. The results have been derived from quantitative analysis of 12 policy networks in 8 countries. Pc and cty have 2 forms: a hierarchical (hpc, hcty) and an occasional one (opc, octy). The hierarchical forms constitute an informal leading system in a policy network, while the occasional ones are only related to particular contacts. The hpc of an actor increases with I) general communication control by and II) the scientific importance of the actor, while it decreases with III) its member strength and IV) the lobbying possibilities in the network where it participates. The opc just increases with I) the control of general communication. The hcty increases with I) the contacts number, II) high occasional and III) low hierarchical trust, IV) volunteers number, V) weak control of general communication, and VI) decreases with the chairperson age, when this actor participates in networks with VII) many conflicts and VIII) low exchange of material support. The octy increases with the same factors as hcty except for general communication, control, volunteers, and hierarchical trust (total 5 factors). Additionally, it increases with VI) human resources and VII) organizational type, while it decreases with VIII) authorization to negotiate, IX) scientific importance, and X) internal training of the actor. The private actors (mostly individual enterprises) have the highest h- and octy.

Keywords: corruption; corruptibility; environmental policy making; rural policy making; quantitative network analysis; socio-informatics; policy networks; judicial investigations.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2003.053907

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2003 Vol.5 No.2, pp.180 - 199

Published online: 13 May 2013 *

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