Fostering Integrity or Falling Short: The Role of Anti-Corruption Laws in Diverse Global Contexts

A special issue of Laws (ISSN 2075-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2025 | Viewed by 939

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A2, Canada
Interests: crimes of the powerful (white-collar, corporate, state crime); policing and society; violence against women; media, deviance, and social control; land rights of Aboriginal citizens and Chinese peasants; corporations and securities regulation; Chinese law and society

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Guest Editor
Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
Interests: corruption; socio-legal studies; criminal justice; criminology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue gives attention to the dual potential of anti-corruption laws to foster integrity or fall short in diverse global contexts. It critically examines the interplay between legal frameworks, cultural norms, societal values, institutional structures, and governance dynamics. Anti-corruption laws are often perceived as vital tools for combating corruption, but their effectiveness in promoting a culture of integrity depends on factors such as enforcement mechanisms, political will, cultural tradition, and contextual adaptability. Key areas of focus include the role of well-designed laws in building public trust and ethical governance, as well as the barriers that hinder their success, such as weak enforcement, political interference, and systemic issues like elite capture and impunity. This issue also highlights the influence of societal norms, cultural attitudes, and local contexts on the implementation and impact of these laws. Emerging trends, such as the integration of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and e-governance platforms, are explored alongside innovative approaches that combine legal deterrents with preventive measures and public education. This Special Issue aims to provide actionable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars by bridging gaps between theory and practice. Submissions offering comparative analyses, empirical research, and policy recommendations are encouraged, with a focus on fostering ethical, transparent, and accountable governance systems worldwide.

Prof. Dr. Hongming Cheng
Dr. Joseph Asomah
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • anti-corruption laws
  • ethical governance
  • corruption

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 488 KiB  
Article
A Little Too Little, A Little Too Late: The Political Impact of Russia’s Anti-Corruption Enforcement
by Marina Zaloznaya and William M. Reisinger
Laws 2025, 14(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/laws14020020 - 21 Mar 2025
Viewed by 687
Abstract
Similarly to “wars” on drugs and terrorism, the fight against corruption has recently emerged as an attractive political tool. From Argentina and India to the United States and the Philippines, anti-corruption rhetoric has been successfully utilized by political outsiders to challenge establishment candidates. [...] Read more.
Similarly to “wars” on drugs and terrorism, the fight against corruption has recently emerged as an attractive political tool. From Argentina and India to the United States and the Philippines, anti-corruption rhetoric has been successfully utilized by political outsiders to challenge establishment candidates. It remains less clear, however, whether anti-corruption enforcement allows incumbent politicians to hold on to power. In this article, we use a comparative subnational design to analyze the impact of corruption prosecutions on electoral support for the president of Russia. By combining original survey data on popular political attitudes and behaviors as well as citizens’ own participation in petty corruption with official statistics on corruption prosecutions, on the one hand, and data on media coverage of regional corruption scandals, on the other, we reveal a small negative effect of anti-corruptionism on voting for Putin. Our data allow us to adjudicate among several theoretical mechanisms that may lead to this effect. We find that, although ordinary Russians dislike corruption and expect the federal government to fight it, Putin’s anti-corruption enforcement has failed to convince the population that he is the right man for the job. Some Russians, we argue, take the Kremlin’s prosecutions as an indicator of the regime’s failure to prevent corruption among its agents, while others resent the administration for trying to score political points through hyped-up and punitive anti-corruptionism. Full article
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