Combating Corruption in Global Business: From the Cold War to the End of the Second Global Economy
Description
The relationship between multinational corporations and host governments is often tainted by corrupt practices by one (or both) of these two actors. For centuries, practices that in the twenty-first century are considered unlawful or immoral such as paying or receiving bribes, manipulating policy making for the benefit of private firms, or using violence to eliminate competitors were normal ways to conduct businesses. By the twentieth-century, Western companies protected themselves arguing that they engaged in corrupt activities because that was the way of doing business in unstable or poor countries. It was only as late as the 1970s, when governments (starting with the United States) created a legal framework to fight corruption of their own firms abroad. Other governments followed with similar legislation and later anti-corruption practices were adopted by multilateral organizations. This paper studies the evolution of legislation aimed to end corruption in international business. It starts with the US Foreign Corrupt Actions Act and follows with an analysis of how and when other Western countries adopted similar frameworks. The paper includes a discussion about challenges facing these initiatives in the uncertain 2010s world.