Corrupt cities: a practical guide to cure and prevention

The movement toward decentralization is gathering momentum. In this context, the important costs of corruption are being explicitly recognised, as is the urgent need to prevent corruption, raise city revenues, improve service delivery, stimulate public confidence and participation and win elections. This book is designed to help citizens and public officials diagnose, investigate, and prevent various kinds of corrupt and illicit behaviour. It focuses on systematic corruption rather than free-lance activity of a few law-breakers, and emphasises preventive measures rather than purely punitive or moralistic campaigns. It offers successful examples of anti-corruption strategies implemented in Hong Kong and La Paz, as well as suggestions concerning their implementation in difficult settings that may be characterised by political indifference, bureaucratic inertia, and citizen support not yet mobilised. Finally, it advocates both restructuring city services and making institutional reforms that improve information, create new and more powerful incentives and remake the relationship between the citizen and local government.