TY - JOUR
T1 - "No longer at ease"
T2 - Corruption as an institution in West Africa
AU - van den Bersselaar, Dmitri
AU - Decker, Stephanie
PY - 2011/9/1
Y1 - 2011/9/1
N2 - This article traces the historical genesis of corruption in two West African countries: Ghana and Nigeria. It argues that corruption in Africa is an institution that emerged in direct response to colonial systems of rule which super-imposed an imported institutional system with different norms and values on an existing institutional landscape, despite the fact that both deeply conflicted and contradicted each other. During decolonization and after independence, corruption, although dysfunctional, fully evolved into an institution that allowed an uneasy cohabitation of colonial and domestic African institutions to grow into a composite, syncretic system facilitated by generalized corruption.
AB - This article traces the historical genesis of corruption in two West African countries: Ghana and Nigeria. It argues that corruption in Africa is an institution that emerged in direct response to colonial systems of rule which super-imposed an imported institutional system with different norms and values on an existing institutional landscape, despite the fact that both deeply conflicted and contradicted each other. During decolonization and after independence, corruption, although dysfunctional, fully evolved into an institution that allowed an uneasy cohabitation of colonial and domestic African institutions to grow into a composite, syncretic system facilitated by generalized corruption.
KW - Colonial rule
KW - Corruption
KW - Decolonization
KW - Ghana
KW - Institutional theory
KW - Nigeria
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80052054623&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01900692.2011.598272
DO - 10.1080/01900692.2011.598272
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
AN - SCOPUS:80052054623
SN - 0190-0692
VL - 34
SP - 741
EP - 752
JO - International Journal of Public Administration
JF - International Journal of Public Administration
IS - 11
ER -
