From Deep North to Global Governance Exemplar: Fitzgerald's impact on the International Anti-corruption Movement

Abstract

Twenty years ago, the Hong Kong model (a strong law and a powerful agency, ICAC) was the general model for fighting corruption. However, the Fitzgerald reform process produced a new model of governance reform and a new model for building integrity and combating corruption. While originally called an 'ethics regime', the terms that have stuck have been 'ethics infrastructure' (OECD then UN) and, especially, 'National Integrity System' (Transparency International and then World Bank). This paper outlines the distinctive nature of the reform process and the distinctive features and advantages of the integrity systems approach. It then describes the process by which this approach gradually came to supplant the 'Hong Kong' model as the preferred method of combating corruption. The paper will briefly outline the different ways in which national integrity systems were mapped and assessed before arguing that the fight against corruption requires a new form of mapping and assessment – of 'corruption systems. It is here that we can come to recognise another great virtue of the Fitzgerald Inquiry – the way that it broke the then corruption system by exposing its working from bottom to top. The paper concludes by identifying a key strategy for corruption busting campaigns of which Fitzgerald is an exemplar – the creation of a form of 'prisoner's dilemma' for those involved in corruption.