V. Comparison and Discussion
V.II Discussion
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75 genuine will to tackle the problem of corruption with its ‘National Integrity Building Plan’ reforms, than Xi Jinping’s administration does with its anti-corruption campaign. As we have shown before, Taiwan’s current policies show genuine improvements in the country’s government infrastructure to warrant lasting results in terms of anti-corruption. As for the PRC, there is no indication that the current anti-corruption campaign is anything more than a method for Xi Jinping to consolidate his power. As long as he does not address the issues of party discipline preceding over the rule of law when it comes to the trial of party members or establishing the CDIC as a truly independent ACA, then there is no indication of genuine will to tackle corruption.
V.II Discussion
In this section I will take a closer look at the implications our case study has on the state of research regarding the relationship between corruption and democratization. As noted earlier in this text, the majority of the body of previous research suggests that democratization inhibits corruption.
The relationship between corruption and democratization is described as an inverted U-curve by Campbell and Saha.136 “[…] there is a cubic relationship between democracy and corruption, such that, a democratic transformation (starting at an extremely dictatorial level) initially reduces corruption, but at intermediate levels of democracy increases corruption, and finally, at mature stages, substantially reduces corruption.”137
136 Campbell, Saha.(2013).
This is reflected in the experience of newly democratic Taiwan. As noted earlier, Taiwan’s first democratically elected president Lee Teng-hui resorted to the cutting of deals with business tycoons and organized crime members, thus creating a political climate with more corruption. His successor Chen Shui-bian proved to be no better after his arrest for corruption in 2008 following his second term in office. Following the above mentioned theory, Ma Ying-jeou and his National Integrity Building Plan could possibly be the threshold after which
137 Ibid: 299.
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76 corruption starts to decrease. However, it is still too early to tell. Campbell and Saha note: “[…] we find that the turning point for democracy reducing corruption is relatively high for Asia-Pacific countries. A possible policy implication from this is that reforms to institutions and practices […]
need to be persisted with, and, we should not be disillusioned simply because past mature-democracy-enhancing reforms failed to impact upon the level of corruption.”138
This is theory can be associated with the factor of ‘political will to tackle corruption’. The theory of the U-curve relationship between corruption and democratization is not upset by the experience of modern day authoritarian China. There is no indication of any institutional threshold of this kind being reached in the Middle Kingdom.
The reform
program can only be the turning point for democratization to start reducing corruption in Taiwan if the leaders persist in implementing the reforms.
However, the cases of Taiwan and the PRC do not offer conclusive evidence for or against the U-curve theory of the relationship between democratization and corruption. We should continue to track the development of corruption in the two countries as it still remains unclear if Taiwan’s corruption levels will continue to drop and/or if the PRC will start definitive reforms to lower overall corruption levels without democratization.
One thing that this study highlights is that the development of corruption cannot fully be explained by democratization (or the lack thereof). Earlier in the text we established that low civil servant salaries and a low level of a country’s economic development is one of the chief causes of need-driven corruption. As we have seen, both Taiwan and the PRC are able to solve this problem with the combination of economic growth and civil service wage reforms. This is thus a form of corruption that is not caused by a lack of democracy, but by economic factors.
138 Campbell, Saha.. (2013): 300.
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77 This deserves more focus in future research on the causes and curbs of corruption. This research highlights that instead of looking for an end-all solution to corruption different forms of corruption should be identified and dealt with accordingly.
Another perspective on the development of corruption is the idea by Ades and Di Tella that governments focusing on promoting large state owned companies, or ‘national champions’ have higher levels of corruption.139
Another reason that researchers attribute democratization with the curbing of corruption is the amount of apparent transparency democratic elements like freedom of information and association provide to society, thus making it harder to get away with acts of official malfeasance. Recently research has been done that has revealed that Taiwan, although a democracy doesn’t always live up to the expectations that democracy provides rule of law and equality.
In future research on corruption comparing Taiwan and the PRC, it would be interesting to focus on this element. There are plenty of large SOEs in the PRC, but in Taiwan the situation has changed considerably in recent years. A comparison of the two cases could possibly yield interesting insights related to Ades, Alberto and Di Tella’s theory.
140 The authors of ‘Procedural quality only? Taiwanese democracy reconsidered’141
139 Ades, Alberto, Di Tella.(1997).
use a method to assess the ‘quality’ of a country’s democratic system in order to conceive a non-static notion of democracy. It would be interesting for researchers to explore the relationship between the ‘quality of democracy’ and corruption. One conclusion we can make about the cases of Taiwan and the PRC is that the rule of law, or the lack thereof, is a key difference between the two cases in terms of corruption trends.
However, following the above mentioned authors’ notions of quality of democracy, one can deduce that democracy does not by default indicate that a country has ‘rule of law.’ Future research should
140 Chang, Yu-tzung; Chu, Yun-han; Huang Min-hua. “Procedural quality only? Taiwanese democracy reconsidered”.
International Political Science Review 32:598 (2011). pp. 598-619.
141 Chang, Chu, Huang. (2011).
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78 pursue the possibility that the relationship between levels of ‘rule of law’ and corruption might be stronger than that of democratization and corruption.
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