Comparative Political Studies of Political Corruption, Clientelism and Social Capital

本合作项目旨在对政治腐败、裙带主义和社会资本进行实证和理论研究，以日本、韩国、意大利、法国、南欧国家、中东欧洲国家为比较研究对象。我们可以非常谨慎地对待腐败和裙带关系之间的区别，但我们不能遵循传统的推理路线，认为裙带关系仅仅是现代化后期的残余。与此同时，我们不应乐观地认为，利用裙带关系可以解决腐败问题。这类研究很少将腐败和裙带关系视为共生和冲突过程权力结构交织形式的结构性和制度性产物，这种权力结构源于资本积累（资本主义）、合理化（官僚主义）和政治参与（民主）的各种需求。这项联合研究分析了辩论的关键方面，例如，在行政效率、社会边缘解决社会和经济不平等或经济发展的合法要求方面，腐败和裙带关系是否应该被评估为“润滑剂”？它们是否应该被理解为由于缺乏“社会资本”或“道德资本”而加剧的“恶性循环”的结果？加强警务以控制政治腐败的效果如何？选举改革或政府权力下放是否能包治百病？利用一系列理论方法和经验证据，我们所有人都努力调查形成腐败和裙带主义做法的历史、体制、社会结构和政治文化因素，并回答上述问题。2006年7月10日，在日本福冈举行的2006年国际政治科学协会（International political Science Association）政治社会学分会（RC06）的“政治腐败与裙带关系的比较”专题讨论会为这一研究做出了重要贡献。我们还于2006年4月出版了Ashgate出版有限公司（英国）的《比较政治腐败和裙带主义》。我们深信，在这项共同工作中获得的发现将有助于使我们的民主制度更好地运作。少

This collaborative project is aimed to empirically and theoretically study political corruption, clientelism and social capital, dealing with Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, Southern European countries, Middle-Eastern European countries as objects of comparative study.We can treat the distinction between corruption and clientelism with much care, but we cannot toe a conventional line of reasoning regarding clientelism as a mere residue of late modernization. At the same time we should not take the optimistic view that corruption can be conquered by the exploits of clientelism. Very little of this kind of study has considered corruption and clientelism as structural and institutional products of interweaving forms of symbiosis and collision-course power structures that arise from the various demands of capital accumulation (capitalism), rationalization (bureaucracy), and political participation (democracy).This joint study analyses key aspects of the debate such as, should corruption … More and clientelism be evaluated as a 'lubricant' in terms of administrative efficiency, legitimate demands from the margins of society to readdress the social and economic inequality or economic development? Should they be understood as the result of a 'vicious circle' reinforced by lack of 'social capital' or 'moral capital'? What would be the effect of strengthening policing to control political corruption and could electoral reform or a decentralization of government power be a cure for all?Using a range of theoretical approaches and empirical proofs, all of us strive to survey the historical, institutional, societal-structural and political-cultural factors that form corrupted and clientelistic practices and to answer the above-mentioned questions.A symposia about comparing political corruption and clientelism offered as one panel of RC06 (Political Sociology) Section at 2006 International Political Science Association held in Fukuoka, Japan (July 10, 2006) has made important contributions to this work. We also published Comparing Political Corruption and Clientelism by Ashgate Publishing Ltd. (UK) in April, 2006.We are convinced that finding acquired in this joint work will contribute to make our democracies work better. Less