Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T11:04:37.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Accounts and Accountability: Corruption, Human Rights, and Individual Accountability Norms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2014

Hun Joon Kim  and
J.C. Sharman
Get access

Abstract

Two parallel norms mandate an international duty to hold state leaders individually accountable for serious corruption and human rights crimes. The development of these new norms is poorly explained by realist and neoliberal perspectives, but there are also weaknesses in recent constructivist explanations of norm diffusion that emphasize agency at the expense of structure. Such approaches have difficulty explaining the source of and similarities between new norms, and treat norm entrepreneurs as prior to and separate from their environment. In contrast, drawing on sociological institutionalism, we present a more structural explanation of individual accountability norms. The norms derive from an overarching modernist world culture privileging individual rights and responsibilities, as well as rational-legal authority. This culture is more generative of norm entrepreneurs than generated by them. The specific norms are instantiated through a process of “theorization” within permissive post–Cold War conditions, and diffused via mimicry, professionalization, and coercive isomorphism.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , Spring 2014 , pp. 417 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbot, Kenneth W., and Snidal, Duncan. 2002. Values and Interests: International Legalization in the Fight Against Corruption. Journal of Legal Studies 31 (1):141–78.Google Scholar
Acharya, Amitav. 2004. How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asia Regionalism. International Organization 58 (2):239–75.Google Scholar
Adler, Emanuel. 2002. Constructivism and International Relations. In Handbook of International Relations, edited by Carlsnaes, Walter, Risse, Thomas, and Simmons, Beth A., 95–118. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Adler, Emanuel, and Pouliot, Vincent. 2011. International Practices. International Theory 3 (1):1–36.Google Scholar
Asian Development Bank. 2006. Denying Safe Haven to the Corrupt and the Proceeds of Corruption. Manila: Asian Development Bank.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael. 2005. Social Constructivism. In The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, edited by Baylis, John, Smith, Steve, and Owen, Patricia, 160–73. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael. 2009. Evolution Without Progress? Humanitarianism in a World of Hurt. International Organization 63 (4):621–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, Michael, and Finnemore, Martha. 2004. Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bob, Clifford. 2002. Globalization and the Social Construction of Human Rights Campaigns. In Globalization and Human Rights, edited by Brysk, Alison, 133–47. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bukovansky, Mlada. 2002. Legitimacy and Power Politics: The American and French Revolutions in International Political Culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bukovansky, Mlada. 2006. The Hollowness of Anti-Corruption Discourse. Review of International Political Economy 13 (2):181–209.Google Scholar
Carpenter, R. Charli. 2007. Setting the Advocacy Agenda: Theorizing Issue Emergence and Nonemergence in Transnational Advocacy Networks. International Studies Quarterly 51 (1):99–120.Google Scholar
Carranza, Ruben. 2008. Plunder and Pain: Should Transitional Justice Engage with Corruption and Economic Crimes? International Journal of Transitional Justice 2 (3):310–30.Google Scholar
Clark, Ann Marie. 2001. Diplomacy of Conscience: Amnesty International and Changing Human Rights Norms. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2005. Legitimacy in International Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2007. International Legitimacy and World Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cole, Wade M. 2005. Sovereignty Relinquished? Explaining Commitment to the International Human Rights Covenants, 1966–1999. American Sociological Review 70 (3):472–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
della Porta, Donatella, and Tarrow, Sidney. 2012. Interactive Diffusion: The Coevolution of Police and Protest Behavior with an Application to Transnational Contention. Comparative Political Studies 45 (1):119–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Sousa, Luis, Larmour, Peter, and Hindess, Barry, eds. 2009. Governments, NGOs and Anti-Corruption: The New Integrity Warriors. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Frank, Simmons, Beth, and Garrett, Geoffrey. 2007. The Global Diffusion of Public Policies: Social Construction, Coercion, Competition, or Learning? Annual Review of Sociology 33:449–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doty, Roxanne Lynn. 1997. Aporia: A Critical Exploration of the Agent-Structure Problematique in International Relations Theory. European Journal of International Relations 3 (3):365–92.Google Scholar
Drori, Gili S., and Krücken, Georg, eds. 2009. World Society: The Writings of John W. Meyer. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Drori, Gili S., Meyer, John W., and Hwang, Hokyu, eds. 2006. Globalization and Organization: World Society and Organizational Change. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. Norms, Culture, and World Politics: Insights from Sociology's Institutionalism. International Organization 50 (2):325–47.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. International Norm Dynamics and Political Change. International Organization 52 (4):887–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 2001. Taking Stock: The Constructivist Research Program in International Relations and Comparative Politics. Annual Review of Political Science 4:391–416.Google Scholar
Forsythe, David P. 2006. Human Rights in International Relations. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
George, Alexander L., and Bennett, Andrew. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Witness, Global. 1996. Corruption, War and Forest Policy: The Unsustainable Exploitation of Cambodia's Forests. London: Global Witness. Available at <http://www.globalwitness.org/library/corruption-war-and-forest-policy>. Accessed 1 September 2011.Google Scholar
Witness, Global. 2009. Undue Diligence: How Banks Do Business with Corrupt Regimes. London: Global Witness.Google Scholar
Witness, Global. 2010. “International Thief Thief”: How British Banks Are Complicit in Nigerian Corruption. London: Global Witness.Google Scholar
Goddard, Stacie E. 2009. Brokering Change: Networks and Entrepreneurs in International Politics. International Theory 1 (2):249–81.Google Scholar
Group of Twenty (G20). 2010. G20 Agenda for Action on Combating Corruption, Promoting Market Integrity, and Supporting a Clean Business Environment. Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A., and Taylor, Rosemary C.R.. 1996. Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms. Political Studies 44 (5):936–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, Darren. 2004. Explaining Costly International Institutions: Persuasion and Enforceable Human Rights Norms. International Studies Quarterly 48 (4):779–804.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Stanley. 1983. Reaching for the Most Difficult: Human Rights as a Foreign Policy Goal. Daedalus 112 (4):19–49.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1987. Modernization and Corruption. In Political Corruption: A Handbook, edited by Heidenheimer, Arnold J., Johnston, Michael, and LeVine, Victor T., 377–88. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Hurd, Ian. 2008. Constructivism. In The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, edited by Reus-Smit, Christian and Snidal, Duncan, 298–316. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Patrick Thaddeus, and Nexon, Daniel H.. 1999. Relations Before States: Substance, Process and the Study of World Politics. European Journal of International Relations 5 (3):291–332.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J., ed. 1996. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J. 2010. A World of Plural and Pluralist Civilizations: Multiple Actors, Traditions, and Practices. In Civilizations in World Politics: Plural and Pluralist Perspectives, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 1–40. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, Judith. 2008. Assessing the Complex Evolution of Norms: The Rise of International Election Monitoring. International Organization 62 (2):221–55.Google Scholar
Kim, Hun Joon, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 2010. Explaining the Deterrence Effect of Human Rights Prosecutions for Transitional Countries. International Studies Quarterly 54 (4):939–63.Google Scholar
Kissinger, Henry. 2001. The Pitfalls of Universal Jurisdiction. Foreign Affairs 80 (4):86–96.Google Scholar
Larmour, Peter. 2006. Civilizing Techniques: Transparency International and the Spread of Anti-Corruption. In Global Standards of Market Civilization, edited by Bowden, Brett and Seabrooke, Leonard, 95–106. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lutz, Ellen L., and Reiger, Caitlin, eds. 2009. Prosecuting Heads of State. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1989. Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1998. The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders. International Organization 52 (4):943–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayntz, Renate. 2004. Mechanisms in the Analysis of Social Macro-Phenomena. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 34 (2):237–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, Douglas. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCoy, Jennifer L., and Heckel, Heather. 2001. The Emergence of a Global Anti-Corruption Norm. International Politics 38 (1):65–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEvoy, Kieran. 2008. Letting Go of Legalism: Developing a “Thicker” Version of Transitional Justice. In Transitional Justice from Below: Grassroots Activism and the Struggle for Change, edited by McEvoy, Kieran and McGregor, Lorna, 16–46. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 1994/1995. The False Promise of International Institutions. International Security 19 (3):5–49.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W. 1989. Conceptions of Christendom: Notes on the Distinctiveness of the West. In Cross-National Research on Sociology, edited by Kohn, Melvin, 395–413. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., Boli, John, Thomas, George M., and Ramirez, Francisco O.. 1997. World Society and the Nation-State. American Journal of Sociology 103 (1):144–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, John W., and Jepperson, Ronald L.. 2000. The “Actors” of Modern Society: The Cultural Construction of Social Agency. Sociological Theory 18 (1):100–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, John W., and Rowan, Brian. 1977. Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83 (2):340–63.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 2000. The Origins of Human Rights Regimes: Democratic Delegation in Postwar Europe. International Organization 54 (2):217–52.Google Scholar
Neier, Aryeh. 2012. The International Human Rights Movement: A History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Philpott, Daniel. 2001. Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2003. Big, Slow-Moving, and…Invisible: Macrosocial Processes in the Study of Comparative Politics. In Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Science, edited by Mahoney, James and Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, 177–207. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Walter W., and DiMaggio, Paul J., eds. 1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Power, Samantha. 2002. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Price, Richard. 1998. Reversing the Gun Sight: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines. International Organization 52 (3):613–44.Google Scholar
Reus-Smit, Christian. 1999. The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Reus-Smit, Christian. 2004. The Politics of International Law. In The Politics of International Law, edited by Reus-Smit, Christian, 14–44. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reus-Smit, Christian. 2009. Constructivism. In Theories of International Relations, edited by Burchill, Scott, Linklater, Andrew, Devetak, Richard, Donnelly, Jack, Nardin, Terry, Paterson, Matthew, Reus-Smit, Christian, and True, Jacqui, 212–36. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Reus-Smit, Christian. 2011. Struggles for Individual Rights and the Expansion of the International System. International Organization 65 (2):207–42.Google Scholar
Risse, Thomas, Ropp, Stephen C., and Sikkink, Kathryn, eds. 1999. The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roht-Arriaza, Naomi. 2005. The Pinochet Effect: Transnational Justice in the Age of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2001. The Community Trap: Liberal Norms, Rhetorical Action, and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union. International Organization 55 (1):47–80.Google Scholar
Sharman, J.C. 2011. The Money Laundry: Regulating Criminal Finance in the Global Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2011a. The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2011b. “The Alchemy of Agency: How Constructivism Could Help Bridge the Gap Between IR Theory and Practice in World Politics.” Keynote address, Millennium Annual Conference, London School of Economics, London, 22 October.Google Scholar
Simmons, Beth A. 2009. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Strang, David, and Meyer, John W.. 1993. Institutional Conditions for Diffusion. Theory and Society 22 (4):487–511.Google Scholar
Subotic, Jelena. 2009. Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Suganami, Hidemi. 1999. Agents, Structures, Narratives. European Journal of International Relations 5 (3):365–86.Google Scholar
Thomas, Daniel C. 2005. Human Rights Ideas, the Demise of Communism, and the End of the Cold War. Journal of Cold War Studies 7 (2):110–41.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Pamela S., and Zucker, Lynne G.. 1996. The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory. In Handbook of Organization Studies, edited by Clegg, Stewart R., Hardy, Cynthia, and Nord, Walter R., 175–90. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Transparency International. 2004. Global Corruption Report: Political Corruption. Berlin.Google Scholar
Transparency International. 2011. Corruption Perceptions Index 2011. Berlin. Available at <http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/>. Accessed 12 September 2012..+Accessed+12+September+2012.>Google Scholar
United Nations Security Council. 2004. Report of the Secretary-General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post–Conflict Societies (S/2004/616).Google Scholar
US Senate. 1999. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Private Banking and Money Laundering: A Case Study of Opportunities and Vulnerabilities. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
US Senate. 2004. Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the Patriot Act: Case Study of Riggs Bank. Washington, DC: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.Google Scholar
US Senate. 2005. Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the Patriot Act: Supplemental Staff Report on US Accounts Used by Augusto Pinochet. Washington, DC: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.Google Scholar
Valentino, Benjamin A. 2004. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth N. 2000. Structural Realism After the Cold War. International Security 25 (1):5–41.Google Scholar
Weaver, Catherine E. 2008. Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 1995. Constructing International Politics. International Security 20 (1):71–81.Google Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 2003. Why a World State Is Inevitable. European Journal of International Relations 9 (4):491–542.Google Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 2005. Agency, Teleology and the World State: A Reply to Shannon. European Journal of International Relations 11 (4):589–98.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2007. Stolen Assets Recovery (StAR) Initiative. Challenges, Opportunities, and Action Plan. Washington, DC: World Bank/UN Office on Drugs and Crime.Google Scholar