Guardian reports on research at Princeton on success factors in governmental anti-corruption initiatives:
How to operate an anti-corruption institution in government is far from obvious as, amid a culture of corruption, an agency created specifically to target corruption is an immediate and obvious target of the forces of corruption. One surprising conclusion of the research is that investigations must target the hidden side of corruption, removing the bribe-taking operatives and other functionaries that prop up corrupt institutions. This has a more immediate effect than removing the obviously corrupt high-ranking officials — their popularity makes it harder to dislodge them, and in many cases, they can easily be replaced, to little lasting effect.
