Paying Bribes for Public Services - by R Rose & C Peiffer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book documents what happens when people encounter public officials. It draws on multi-national Barometer surveys asking questions about corruption and bribery in 119 countries. Clear prose, tables and figures report the answers given by more than 250,000 people and the conclusion sets out six principles for reducing bribery.

Review Quotes

"Using evidence from surveys around the globe, Richard Rose's book calls much needed attention to the pervasiveness of "grassroots corruption". It uses the evidence to identify a set of innovative policy recommendations about how to turn the tide against bribery worldwide. This makes the book a key resource for policy-makers and the anti-corruption community worldwide." Robin Hodess, Group Director-Research and Knowledge, Transparency International

"Bribes are all too often reduced to simple material transactions. But Rose and Peiffer use fresh evidence from global surveys to show that matters are much more complicated. Bribery occurs as part of a complex set of influences on the delivery of public services. Those who cope with bribery in daily life and those who seek reform will find both useful examples and critical insights in this book." Michael Johnston, Political Science, Colgate University, USA

"Rose and Peiffer put a vast amount of underutilized survey data about bribery around the world to good use. Viewed from the ground up, bribery varies across government services, as well as across and within continents in Europe as well as Africa. The book provides students of comparative democratic governance an important base for evaluating performance as well as a wealth of important hypotheses to be explored in future work." Robert Mattes, University of Capetown, South Africa, and Co-founder, Afrobarometer

About the Author

Richard Rose has pioneered the comparative study of public policy in four dozen books and hundreds of articles. Research has been presented in 45 countries and 17 languages. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a World Bank, OECD, UNDP and Transparency International consultant.

Caryn Peiffer took a doctorate in political science at Claremont Graduate University with field research in Botswana, Zambia and India. She was a research fellow of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow before joining the Developmental Leadership Program at the University of Birmingham.