Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Does Power Corrupt? An Experimental Approach To Explore the Origins of Corruption in Africa

政府腐败在非洲很普遍。然而，尽管涉及中央政府腐败的丑闻可能是惊人的，但大多数公民直接经历的是地方官员的行为，正是在这个层面上，政府官员可能特别容易受到媒体存在和官僚监督的影响。腐败文化促进短期的、自私的行为，惩罚公民认为公平的、面向共同利益的行为，如平等主义和信任。这种行为的后果可能是灾难性的，但什么导致腐败呢？非洲政治中普遍存在的腐败是政治机构的产物还是寻求公职的个人的产物？有腐败倾向的人是自我选择进入政府职位的，还是担任公职是构成腐败行为基础的条件？一些政治学研究人员断言，政治制度要为非洲的腐败负责。其他人则认为非洲面临着广泛的腐败，因为非洲人是腐败的，他们的文化将腐败嵌入了传统和互动之中。根据前一派的观点，即制度主义者的观点，腐败是在政治官员上任之后发生的。根据后一种观点，即文化观点，腐败是无处不在的。在我的论文中，我计划用赞比亚和坦桑尼亚的地方政治领导人进行一系列新的实验来检验政治制度是否会导致腐败。由于赞比亚和坦桑尼亚的国家腐败程度相似，但地方一级的腐败环境不同，因此它们是令人信服的比较案例。设计调查腐败根源的研究是困难的，因为大多数现有数据是基于对公民的调查，而不是基于政府官员的行为。幸运的是，我计划在我的论文中使用另一种方法。我将召集真实的政治家，亲自观察他们的选择，让我观察选择是如何做出的，以及哪里出现了腐败。这种数据收集方法将使我能够观察政府官员的行为，而不是通过第三方调查来研究腐败。我将招募一批曾在赞比亚和坦桑尼亚竞选地方政府的政治家。这些候选人中有些人会赢得上次选举，有些人会失败，这给我提供了一个比较组。通过精心挑选的对照组，我实验中的任何行为差异都可以归因于与任职相关的政治制度。这项工作为政策制定和科学研究带来了希望。捐助者和国际组织认为腐败破坏了非洲繁荣与和平的政府。虽然这个群体的一些成员认为，创建和支持设计良好的政治制度可以减少不道德行为的水平和程度，但其他人认为这种行为在文化上根深蒂固，无法改变。很少有严谨的研究来告知这些立场。我的论文将有助于提供一个理论上知情和方法论健全的审查腐败的基础。了解腐败的原因可以使决策者建立旨在缓和其存在和影响的机构。该项目还在利用政治家作为腐败研究的参与者方面迈出了重要的一步。数以百计的研究项目被设计来解决政治问题，但我们所知道的没有一个是用真正的政治家来调查政治精英选择的基础。

Government corruption is widespread in Africa. However, as spectacular as scandalsinvolving corruption in the central government might be, it is the behavior of local officials thatmost citizens directly experience, and it is at this level that government officials may beespecially susceptible given the lack of media presence and bureaucratic oversight. A culture ofcorruption promotes short-term, selfish behavior and punishes behavior that citizens wouldconsider fair and oriented towards the common good, such as egalitarianism and trust. Theconsequences of such behavior can be disastrous.But what causes corruption? Is the widespread corruption in African politics the productof political institutions or of the type of individuals who seek office? Do individuals prone tocorruption self-select into government positions or does holding office condition traits thatunderlie corrupt behavior? Some researchers in political science assert that political institutionsare responsible for corruption in Africa. Others argue that Africa faces widespread corruptionbecause Africans are corrupt, that their culture embeds corruption in tradition and interactions.According to the viewpoint of the former group, that of the institutionalists, corruption arisesafter political officials take office. According to the latter viewpoint, the cultural viewpoint,corruption is ever-present.For my dissertation, I plan to test whether political institutions cause corruption using anovel series of experiments with local-level political leaders in Zambia and Tanzania. SinceZambia and Tanzania have similar national levels of corruption but different corruptionenvironments at the local level, they are compelling comparison cases. Designing research toinvestigate the origins of corruption is difficult, since most of the existing data is based onsurveys of citizens, not based on the behaviors of government officials. Fortunately, there is analternative approach that I plan to utilize in my dissertation. I will gather real politicians toobserve their choices in person, allowing me to observe how choices are made and wherecorruption arises. This method of data collection will allow me to observe the behavior ofgovernment officials rather than studying corruption via third party surveys. I will recruit asample of politicians who ran for local government in Zambia and Tanzania. Some of thesubjects will have won the last election and some of them will have lost, providing me withcomparison groups. With carefully chosen comparison groups, any differences in behavior in myexperiments can be attributed to the political institutions associated with holding office.This work holds promise for both policymaking and science. Donors andinternational organizations believe that corruption undermines prosperous and peacefulgovernments in Africa. While some members of this group believe that the creation and supportof well-designed political institutions can reduce the level and extent of unethical behavior,others believe that such behavior is too culturally entrenched to change. There is little rigorousresearch to inform these positions. My dissertation will help provide a theoretically informed andmethodologically sound examination of the foundations of corruption. Understanding the causesof corruption can enable policymakers to create institutions designed to moderate its existenceand effects. The project also takes an important step forward in the use of politicians asparticipants in the study of corruption. Hundreds of research projects have been designed totackle issues of politics, but none that we know of use actual politicians to investigate thefoundations of the choices of the political elite.