The main purpose of this research project is to bridge the existing knowledgegap in the empirical identification and understanding of the most frequentcorrupt actions and the causes behind during procurement of infrastructureprojects in Pakistan, in addition to exploring the ways to enhance institutionalbasedtrust between the participants of the procurement process. Consequentlythe study aims to provide a conceptual framework to control corruption ininfrastructure procurement while proposing the institutional trust-buildingmechanisms. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are utilised in thisstudy to achieve this research aim. Quantitative research data is collected usinga questionnaire survey. A total of 450 questionnaires were sent to variouspeople engaged in procurement of infrastructure projects in Pakistan. Theresponse rate was 36.7% (n=165). The questionnaire comprises of two mainquestions; one is about the most frequent corrupt actions in traditional andPublic Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure procurement processes whileother question asks about the perceived institutional trust-building mechanismsin context of infrastructure procurement market in Pakistan. Various appropriatestatistical methods, including Mean Ranking and ANOVA were utilised toanalyse the collected data. The questionnaire survey was followed by 15 indepth semi-structured interviews with a variety of stakeholders. Theseinterviews provided information on various causes of corruption and reasons asto why people do not for example report a known incident of corruption. A traditional content analysis approach was used to analyse the data collectedusing interviews. From the analysis a cyclical framework of corruption controlemerged, and this is outlined within the thesis. The goal of this framework is tofacilitate procurement stakeholders (individuals, groups, or organisations), toimprove their anti-corruption plans from project to project. This research studyhas filled the knowledge gap through identifying the top twenty potentialcorrupt practices in traditional and PPP infrastructure procurement processes inPakistan and explored the causes behind their occurrence. The study alsorecommends the solutions to mitigate this problem throughout the life cycle ofprocurement process. In addition, the study proposes the institutional trustbuildingmechanisms in the context of infrastructure procurement market inPakistan to cater for the likely loss in trust due to perceived level of corruptionin this sector. The study has also introduced a conceptual framework to controlcorruption in infrastructure procurement process in general and particularly inPakistan. The framework does not intend to introduce new alternatives butinstead builds on existing practices so that users can more easily adapt to theimprovement. The findings of this research are believed to be useful for allpractitioners who are either considering or currently involved in infrastructureprocurement process in Pakistan and trying to avoid or minimise the influenceof corruption.

This PhD thesis looks at one of the most crucial determinants of state formation, quality of institutions, and social equality: institutionalised grand corruption. Institutionalised grand corruption denotes the particularistic allocation of public resources, that is violating prior explicit rules in order to benefit a closed network while denying access to all others. Emphasizing access to power and public resources deviates from traditional definitions of corruption resting on individual wrongdoing and abuse of power. The thesis makes use of large amounts of administrative data describing public procurement tenders on transaction level and links it to data on company ownership, financial accounts, and political office of company owners. By using data mining techniques it breaks away from standard, and arguably deficient, measures of quality of institutions and corruption. It proposes a complex ‘blueprint’ for measuring institutionalized grand corruption in the allocation of public resources and applies its key elements to three Central and Eastern European countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is emphasized that these cases are only ‘pilot’ measurements, the blueprint is applicable to practically every high and middle income country, data is typically going back in time for 6-8 years. Using such a novel indicator set allows for an unprecedented detail of analysis. Results highlight the role played by European Union Structural and Cohesion Funds in increasing the prevalence of institutionalised grand corruption. This is due to at least two factors, first, they provide additional public resources available for corrupt rent extraction; second, they change the motivations for and controls of corruption. In Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, the first effect increases the value of particularistic resource allocation by up to 1.21% of GDP, while the second effect decreases it by up to 0.03% of GDP. The latter effect is entirely driven by Slovakia; in Czech Republic and Hungary even this effect increases particularism.

The thesis contains three main Chapters in which the relationship between organised crime and corruption is studied from different perspectives. Chapter 2 presents a theoretical framework for analyzing the interactions between corruption and organized crime, together with the individual and combined effect of these phenomena on economic performance. We show how organized crime on its own reduces entrepreneurial activity, and how organized crime in conjunction with corruption may reduce such activity to a lesser or greater extent. Chapter 3 presents an empirical investigation into the impact of corruption on economic growth in the presence of organized criminal activities. Using a panel of 19 Italian regions for the period 1983-2009, the analysis reveals that corruption and organized crime have independent negative effects on growth, and that the effect of either is less severe when the other is also present. Chapter 4 presents a further empirical investigation which examines the determinants of organized crime and of common crime in a panel of Italian regions over the period 1983-2003. The analysis shows that both organized and common crimes respond symmetrically to certain drivers, but asymmetrically to others.

This thesis focuses on how the deviance and criminality associated with illegal drugs are negotiated by adult recreational drug takers. The empirical research incorporates twenty-six interviews with people aged between 30 and 59, who have taken drugs within the past year. The participant group comprised equal numbers of males and females in a variety of jobs in the private, public, and voluntary sector. Some were parents and many were in long-term partnerships. The analysis of the interviews employed discursive psychology, which is a form of discourse analysis that focused upon how drug taking is justified, reasoned and described by the participants. As a result of this analysis, six frameworks were formulated, which describe how drug use is legitimised by the participants. These are: the reformed hedonism; the planned celebration; the drug cultures; the socialisation; the moderation; and the situational opportunity frameworks. Each of the frameworks is unique and demonstrates differences in: drug taking choices and preferences, the social context in which drugs are taken, and how drug use is controlled and maintained within adult life. These frameworks are not representations of drug taking ‘identities’; nor are they designed to unearth the ‘truth’ about drug consumption patterns, but they illustrate how participants present themselves with reference to their behaviour. The thesis also introduces a newly developed concept termed, drugscrimination. This is where participants make reference to a level of unacceptable drug taking behaviour, which is out of control, dysfunctional and driven by the desire for extreme intoxication. Drugscrimination is a is ‘technique of neutralisation’ (Matza and Sykes, 1957) whereby participants justify their own drug use by outlining it as less risky than other types of drug taking behaviour. The participants did not view their own behaviour as morally wrong, nor were they widely condemned for it by their friends and family. Participants were mostly concerned about the impact knowledge of their drug use could have on their jobs and careers. In addition, parents with young children were concerned others would question their ability to effectively parent their children. Different discourses are utilised to reason opinions about the correct societal response to drugs. These relate to the discourses of: addiction, freedom, acceptance, tolerance, and conformity. Each discourse can be used to either support or reject drug law and policy, which demonstrates the complexities of understanding drug use in society. Participants feel they should be able to make their own rational decisions about their behaviour; however these should be responsible choices, which are respectful of individual health and well-being, and should not negatively impact others in society.

This thesis challenges the idea that the EU anti-corruption policies’ main rationale is to root out corruption. The research hypothesis is that EU anti-corruption policies are used not so much to control corruption as to control and diminish the powers of nation states and to redesign the classic power balance in these democratic states. The actors who end up being empowered are supranational, international and non-governmental entities: the EU/ the European Commission, International Organizations and domestic civil society with a pro-EU agenda. The domestic decision-makers are structurally disempowered by the anti-corruption policies. The lessons derived from the specific experience of Romania and Bulgaria have a general value because their model inspired the recent decision of the European Commission to introduce the same anti-corruption policies across the EU.

This thesis considers some of those who were killed in politically-motivated attacks, often referred to as ‘terrorism’, which took place during Italy’s anni di piombo. Six works written by victims’ children will be used as a lens through which to examine the collective memory and the victims’ place therein. In recent years, there has been a shift in the way that this period of Italian history - the anni di piombo – has been remembered. Where previously the perpetrators of the violence of those years dominated public discourse, in the last decade the principal narrative has become more victim-centred. The biographical works written by victims’ children have inevitably contributed to this change in the memory narrative. The techniques employed in their writing in order to change the existing public image of their fathers will be analysed in this thesis, along with certain themes that recur throughout the six works and broader victim-centred discussion of this period. Analysis begins with a thorough outline of the political and historical context of the anni di piombo, including case studies of two of the most famous victims of this period and a consideration of the written works of some of the former terrorists. Following this preliminary contextualisation, each of the six books and their authors will be studied in detail to provide a foundation for the analysis contained in the final three chapters. The themes examined in the second half of the thesis are second-generation writing, forgiveness and commemoration. Using these themes as a framework, a rigorous investigation of the place that the victims hold in collective memory; the role their children’s writing has played in shaping and maintaining their public image and the longer-term impact that these changes can be seen to have had within a broader societal and political perspective is undertaken. On the basis of this study, it is evident that the victims’ place in the collective memory of the anni di piombo has changed dramatically since that period of violence concluded. The victims’ children have been very significant in enacting this change and their writing has placed them in a position from which they can continue to exert influence and promote a victim-centred approach to history.

Corruption is widely considered to have adverse effects on economic development through its negative impact on the volume and quality of public investment and the efficiency of government services. Conversely, many of these macro variables are determinants of corruption. However, there are few studies of this two-way interaction at the macro level. This thesis aims to extend the current literature on corruption and development by explicit investigation of two diverse channels through which corruption and economic development interact, namely women's share in politics and pollution. For each variable, the thesis presents a theoretical model in which corruption and economic development are determined endogenously in a dynamic general equilibrium framework. We have four main results. First, female bureaucrats commit fewer corrupt acts than male bureaucrats because they have lower incentives to be corrupt. Second, corruption affects pollution directly by reducing pollution abatement resources and indirectly through its impact on development. As pollution and development appear to have an inverse U-shaped relationship, the total effect of corruption on pollution depends on the economy's level of income. Third, we confirm a simultaneous relationship between corruption and development. Fourth, for sufficiently low income levels, corruption and poverty may be permanent features of the economy. In addition to the two theoretical models, the thesis also presents an empirical investigation of the causal effect of women's share in parliament on corruption using panel data and gender quotas as instruments for women's share in parliament. Our results overturn the consensus since we find no causal effect of women's share in parliament on corruption, except in a particular case of Africa with reserved seats quotas.

The thesis examines the practice of corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA) from the period of its establishment until the death of Arafat. Palestinian elite formation from the late Ottoman period until the establishment of the PA was assessed in order to identify the elites that came into power in the PA and the political cultures they came to espouse. The two primary elite groups’ (Outsider elites and Insider counter-elites) conflicting political cultures were assessed in how they influenced the decision making process, the construction, and exhibited institutional behaviour of the PA. With the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo Accords) on the 13th of September, 1993 between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Government of Israel it established the Palestinian Authority as the government in transition for the Palestinians. The agreements conferred the governing power and leadership role to the PLO Outsider elites (under Arafat). Due to the secret nature and asymmetrical power relation by which the negotiations and agreements were conducted and signed between the PLO Outsider leadership and the Government of Israel, which excluded inputs from Palestinian Insider elites, the culminating PA structure came to exhibit institutional weakness with certain neo-patrimonial behaviour. The political framework by which the Oslo Accords constructed the PA and influenced by international actors warranted institutional-weakness. Moreover, as external actors’ demands for the PA to deal with the declining Peace Process, and address political and security issues increased, PA corruption behaviour became more apparent and proliferated which became indicative of its fundamental problem in that it lacked statehood, lacked authority and legitimacy, and thus resorted to neo-patrimonial and repressive methods to govern. This neo-patrimonial political culture of Arafat and his governing Outsider elites used corruption as a PA political tool for survival thus suppressing a nascent democratic political culture of the Insiders and consequently led to an institutionalisation of corruption in the PA.

This thesis offers a critical assessment of anti- child trafficking discourse, policy and practice, using a case study of the situation in Southern Benin. It seeks to achieve two main goals. First, to transcend the reductiveness of the dominant paradigm around child trafficking, including dominant representations of it and prevailing policy approaches to dealing with it. Second, to complicate the simplistic nature of much of the academic literature that explains the existence and persistence of this dominant paradigm. Based on 14 months of multi-sited fieldwork, the thesis demonstrates, first, that the institutional narrative of ‘child trafficking’ misrepresents what would be better understood as adolescent labour migration in Benin, and second, that mainstream policy approaches to tackling this fail to account for the sociocultural or political-economic conditions that underpin it. The thesis suggests that this can be interpreted as a result of the power of three framing orders of discourse – ‘Apollonian Childhood’, Neoliberalism and that of the Westphalian State – which structure both what ‘trafficking’ can mean and what can be done about it. The thesis suggests that the material and power structures of the anti-trafficking discourse- and policy-making field are such that, even where individuals within it reject both the dominant paradigm and its (and the field’s) framing orders of discourse, little space exists for them to construct meaningful alternatives. The result is a degree of formal and representational stability, hiding practical hybridity. The conclusion is offered that, while anti-trafficking discourse is presumed to be accurate and while antitrafficking policy is justified in terms of its contribution to ‘beneficiaries’, theprinciple achievement of both is the depoliticised reproduction of the institutions, orders of discourse and political-economic context within which they are constructed.

D’abord sur une échelle réduite puis sur une large échelle la contrebande du kpayo, essence et produits pétroliers occupent aujourd’hui un nombre de plus en plus grand de vendeurs, on estime que 100 000 personnes sont impliquées dans ce trafic du Nigeria au Bénin. Il revêt plusieurs aspects selon qu’il emprunte la route maritime, le fleuve ou la route. Ce transport génère un grand nombre de petits métiers que nous évoquons dans la thèse qu’il s’agisse d’apporter les bidons sur la plage, de transformer les scooters ou les camions. Plus que tout, cette activité suppose aussi un réseau souvent d’origine familiale, mais aussi des accointances avec du personnel des emplois régaliens de la République. Les recherches empiriques réalisées sur des territoires aussi variés et circonscrits que peuvent l’être une station-service, un village lacustre, un marché frontalier, un débarcadère, un entrepôt ont permis d’appréhender les conditions d’approvisionnement des contrebandiers, identifier les modalités d’acheminement des produits pétroliers vers le Bénin, saisir les stratégies de contournement des contrebandiers et les risques encourus tout au long de leur trajet, examiner les interactions entre les transporteurs et les forces de l’ordre à l’occasion du passage des barrières de contrôle, apprécier l’animation des marchés et enfin cerner le rôle des différents acteurs en présence. L’analyse des réseaux marchands, des parcours biographiques, des stratégies d’acteurs, des logiques d’accumulation et des rapports de l’économie informelle à la loi situe cette recherche au croisement de l’anthropologie économique, de la géographie du commerce, de la sociologie de la précarité, et de la sociologie politique. / First of all on a small scale, then further along, on a much larger scale, the kpayo trade which means smuggling of gas and other oil products from Nigeria to Bénin, depend on almost 100 000 persons living on this sale activity. This trade might be quite different if gas transported by means of ships on the sea, by the river, or by scooters or trucks on the road. This kind of informal trade gives way to different kinds of odd jobs we mention in the PHD: bringing the jerrycans to the beach, reshaping scooters and trucks in a garage. Most of all this illicit activity needs some kind of a kinship network and political pull among the police and customs officers of the Republic. Empirical research has been done in different fields such as a gas station, a seaside village, a market on the country border, a landing stage, a warehouse, it led to the comprehension of the way smugglers are supplied. I was thus able to understand the process by which gas was transported from Nigeria to the Republic of Bénin, and see all the byways the smugglers are used to take, and the risks taken all along the journey. I examined the interaction process between the racketeers and the police when they passed a checkpoint; see how the markets were busy, and last managed to see how the the different roles of subjects interact. The racketeers networks analysis, life stories, different action strategies, the way they accumulate and the study of informal economy related to law contribute in this PhD to an essay in economic- anthropology with geographic standpoints, and a sociological analysis of precarious lives and Big Shots.