Everyone just “knows” that “corruption” is the primary cause of...
Sizwe SikaMusi@SizweLo
6 views
Mar 20, 2025
~6 min read
Advertisement
1
Everyone just “knows” that “corruption” is the primary cause of Africa’s continued underdevelopment. However, Professor Grieve Chelwa holds a different view and argues the West has, in fact, “Wielded ‘corruption’ to privatise life in Africa”.
[Thread]
[Thread]
2
Contrary to popular belief, the concept of "corruption" as we know it today, has not always been part of the dominant narrative. In fact, it was not until the early 1990s that corruption became an important part of political and economic discourse.
3
Prof Chelwa argues that after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, "The term 'corruption' started showing up more often in reports from international organisations and NGOs" and that "these reports suggested that corruption is linked to how governments regulate things".
4
From the 1990s, multilateral institutions like the World Bank, the IMF, the UN and Transparency International started preaching that because States oversee large-scale development projects corruption they are automatically prone to corruption. They argued that the role of the public sector had to be reduced.
5
According to Prof Chelwa, "This kind of anti-corruption discourse fit neatly within the neoliberal drive to shrink states’ regulatory apparatuses, deregulate and privatise economic activity, and promote the idea that the freedom of the market’s invisible hand would create a moral foundation for society".
6
Even though they had put corruption front and centre, these institutions did not give a clear definition. In 2009, Transparency International defined corruption as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain". The World Bank described corruption as "the abuse of public office for private gain".
7
Because they define corruption as when a public official abuses his position for private gain, the multilateral organisations then argue that the solution is to reduce the role of the state as much as possible, or as Chelwa puts it, they argue that if most of the state is privatised, "there would be little to no corruption in society".
8
It's important to note that the main focus of the corruption debate has been Africa, where "corruption"—referring to the corruption of the government—has been used to weaken the government's ability to regulate things and to cut down on the number of government workers.
9
The theory that African governments need to reduce their government workforces has resulted in a situation where, according to Prof Chelwa, "21% of the European workforce, on average, is employed in the public sector, that number is a mere 2.38% in Mali, 3.6% in Nigeria, and 6.7% in Zambia, which in turn limits these states’ capacity to manage and regulate large multinational corporations on the African continent".
10
Furthermore, one of the IMF's primary agendas is reducing the public sector wage bill, which Chelwa argues "certainly increases the likelihood of bribery". This is true. A 2001 paper by Caroline Van Rijckeghem and Beatrice Wederasked found "evidence of a statistically and economically significant relationship between relative civil-service pay and corruption".
11
The definition of corruption promulgated by the West emphasises bribery, extortion, and embezzlement, which are primarily associated with the public sector.
However, Prof Chelwa points out how this description conveniently excludes acts like transfer mispricing, trade mis-invoicing, accounting irregularities, financial mismanagement, and tax avoidance, all of which happen to be vital components of the accounting practices of multinational corporations.
However, Prof Chelwa points out how this description conveniently excludes acts like transfer mispricing, trade mis-invoicing, accounting irregularities, financial mismanagement, and tax avoidance, all of which happen to be vital components of the accounting practices of multinational corporations.
12
To find the roots of the currently accepted definition of corruption, Chelwa highlights how when Transparency International was created, one of its first acts was to lobby the governments of France and Germany to stop the policy of what, in Germany, is called Schmiergeld (bribe money).
13
It may come as a shock to many that what today is considered "corruption" was once deemed to be a good thing.
"In the period of decolonisation and then of the formation of postcolonial states, Western-driven modernisation theory argued that corruption was not a ‘poison’ but an asset that helped shape the relationship between the ruling class and the state apparatus".
"In the period of decolonisation and then of the formation of postcolonial states, Western-driven modernisation theory argued that corruption was not a ‘poison’ but an asset that helped shape the relationship between the ruling class and the state apparatus".
14
To emphasise how for a long time the West believed corruption was necessary for running a State, Chelwa cites Robert K. Merton’s 1949 Social Theory and Social Structure wherein the author intimated that corruption deepens the connection between government officials and the ruling class.
15
In the 1960s, several prominent researchers released significant articles from their field studies in Africa and Asia, supporting the idea that corruption "humanises government", a concept highlighted by Edward Shils in 1960.
16
In his 1968 book, Political Order in Changing Societies, Samuel Huntington claimed that corruption, which he referred to as "patronage from above," played a significant role in shaping the "the most effective political parties and most stable political systems" in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
17
Just in case it's not clear, throughout the late colonial period, the West viewed what they later termed "corruption" in their former colonies as perfectly normal and even a beneficial way of doing business.
18
Chelwa posits that in the 1990s, Western universities and transnational organisations introduced a new perspective which claimed that countries in the Global South were hubs of corruption and that reducing the size of their governments would mostly fix the issue.
19
The new theory was that corruption in the public sector corrodes the quality of investments in public goods, as corrupt officials seek to increase investments to increase bribes without consideration for how these investments align with development.
20
This new corruption theory suggests that countries should focus on privatisation and reducing government oversight. The aim is to weaken government regulators and exaggerate how much the private sector can gain from public resources.
21
On how "the fight" against public sector corruption became everyone's daily bread, Chelwa alludes to how "Under pressure from Transparency International and allied Western governments, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Convention Against Corruption in 2003".
22
This legally binding international anti-corruption multilateral treaty was reproduced in the 2003 African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.
23
The treaties established by the UN and the AU do not provide a specific definition of corruption. Instead, they list various offences recommended for criminalisation, emphasising the public sector, including the bribery of public officials.
24
Importantly, Prof Chelwa highlights the fact that the UN convention, AU convention, and Transparency International view different kinds of theft as acceptable, "including the legal theft of surplus value from workers, the illegal deductions of fines and fees used to penalise workers, and corruption legalised by accountants".
25
Chelwa adds that, "By turning a blind eye to corporate corruption and focusing, instead, on bribes of public officials, [the UN, AU and TI] normalise the structured criminality of capitalism".
26
Today, the UN Convention, along with the pro-Westeren Transparency International, has created a popular narrative that makes it seem like the West has overcome corruption while suggesting that this remains mostly a Global South, and especially an African problem.
27
In conclusion, it should be clear how the West's strategic and hypocritical framing of corruption has been crucial in advancing free market and privatisation agendas, undermining African state capacity, and diverting attention from systemic corporate exploitation.
28
As Prof Chelwa lays it out, focusing only on corruption in the public sector and overlooking problems in the private sector perpetuates structural inequalities and reinforces Western dominance. Chelwa's analysis highlights the necessity for a comprehensive approach to corruption that considers power disparities and prioritises the Global South.
29