[TimorLesteStudies] New article: Blunt: The political economy of accountability in Timor-Leste: Implications for public policy

[Bu Wilson]

Blunt, P. 2009. The political economy of accountability in Timor-Leste:
Implications for public policy
Public Administration and Development. Volume 29 Issue 2, Pages 89 - 100.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122278458/abstract

Correspondence to Peter Blunt, Blunt & Associates P/L, PO Box 1035, Windsor
NSW 2756, Australia.email: Peter Blunt (peterblunt at yahoo.com)
>From July 2006 to July 2008, Peter Blunt was Programme Manager of the
AusAID-financed Timor-Leste Public Sector Capacity Development Programme in
Dili, Timor-Leste. Before then, he had worked in 30 developing countries as
a consultant and had held tenured full professorships of management in
universities in Australia, Britain and Norway. The views expressed in this
article are solely those of its author.

Abstract
With a view to establishing the likelihood of the occurrence of state
capture and different forms of corruption and the feasibility of their
management and prevention, important aspects of the historical, social,
economic, political and governance context of Timor-Leste are examined. This
context is found to be conducive to various forms of state capture and
systemic grand and petty corruption, and to be resistant to conventional
short-term technocratic anticorruption remedies. While the latter are likely
to have public relations benefits that may be helpful to the maintenance of
political stability in the short run, it is argued that significant
anticorruption progress is a long-term endeavour, achievable principally
through: sustained impartial service delivery that undermines beliefs in
patronage; hastening - through general education and the creation of a
conducive legal environment for business - the emergence of leaders of
integrity and the growth of a middle class; and the establishment of the
rule of law. 

Bu Wilson
Regulatory  Institutions Network (RegNet) Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies
College of Asia and the Pacific,
Australian National University 
Canberra   ACT   0200 
AUSTRALIA 

T: 02 6125 3194
F: 02 6125 1507
M: 0407 087 086
E: Bu.Wilson at anu.edu.au



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