370 Book reviews

on with crusading zeal. Robert Klitgaard is one of those who have stayed the course. He has been a student of corruption for more than ten years, during which time he has amassed a wealth of detailed and inside information of its various forms and practices. The results of his extensive research are presented in this book, which is perhaps the first serious attempt to trace the nature, growth and dimensions of the problem, to get at the facts so to speak, and to come up with a framework or schema of measures controlling the problem.

The book itself is an intriguing mClange of fact, personal experience and analysis which do not always mix well. Consequently, it falls somewhere between an analytical or academic study and high-grade investigative journalism, which is due partly to the nature of the subject which, to borrow a phrase from Oscar Wilde, ‘dares not speak its name’, and partly to the author’s desire to capture and maintain the imagination and empathy of his readers. One is in fact, carried along by the sheer momentum of events.

Klitgaard firmly believes that corruption is a cancer eating away at the social and economic fabric of many developing countries and stultifying their development. He is equally convinced that it can be controlled and sets out to show how this can be done. His analysis is conducted at two levels. First he examines a number of hypotheses about the principal-agent relationship to explain the conditions which foster corrupt behaviour, but more importantly, to establish a framework for analysing policy measures for controlling corruption. Secondly, he uses a number of case studies to explore and elaborate the theoretical concepts and the framework for policy analysis.

His five case studies provide a rich tapestry of the persvasive nature of corruption at the official level (tax bureaux, police, customs agencies, procurement, the delivery of services), the various types of illicit behaviour (bribery, extortion, speed money, kickbacks and fraud) and countries (Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea). The case of corruption in the Philippines tax system is extensively covered. Chapter two identifies the various forms of corruption within the bureau itself, their effects on the administration of the system and the job facing Justice Plana who was appointed to clean up the mess. Chapter three describes his efforts and anti-corruption methods, including his system of rewards and penalties, all of which proved remarkably successful.

Chapter four looks at corruption in the Hong Kong Police Force and the success of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in rooting out the problem and re- establishing the good name and public confidence in the Hong Kong Police Force. A discussion of the clean-up of Singapore’s Customs and Excise Department completes his coverage of ‘success’ stories. The difficulties which the US Army faced during the 1960s and 1970s to overcome collusion and corruption in its procurement policies in Korea are taken as an example of what can happen when two cultures clash. The clear message here is that policy measures which work in the West may fail when cultures clash over corruption. The final chapter reviews some of the major findings and provides suggestions for further research.

This is an extremely readable and well-researched book, and the author must be congratu- lated for having the courage to open up a subject which is still largely taboo in many developing countries. One hopes that other researchers will follow where he has shown the way.

GEORGE C. ABBOTT Centre for Development Studies

University of Glasgow

VILLAGE REPUBLICS: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION IN SOUTH INDIA, Robert Wade Cambridge University Press, 1988,250 pp.

Co-operatives or co-operation are part and parcel of the make-up of developed and developing nations’ activities. This book by Robert Wade concentrates on villages in South India and looks at the conditions under which collective actions may take place, attempting at the same time to explain the success, or lack of success, of collectivization. In doing so it reveals important insights into village and community life.

Book reviews 371

The book relates the theories of co-operation to the author’s study of villages in Andhra Pradesh. His conclusion is that ‘Villages located towards the tail-end of irrigation systems, and with soils fertile enough to support a high density of livestock, show a larger amount of corporate organisation than villages elsewhere’. But can communities, with their voluntary organizations be left to maintain policies without coercion from central bodies; and more importantly can the evidence that we glean from this most interesting study be adapted to other communities? This latter point, Robert Wade believes to be the case, though one wonders whether such a judgement can be made from the small sample size. Nevertheless, with due reference he notes: ‘the absence of the Kottapalle type of organisation . . . does not mean its absence in the Indian countryside’.

The belief that communities can organize themselves in terms of the resource management of public goods implies that there is not always the need for regulations as suggested by the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’, though for this conclusion to be reached stress must be placed upon the size of the village, ‘. . . because the cost of enforcement when large numbers of people comply involuntarily is likely to be prohibitively high’. In other words villagers need to have some control over the structure of the situation in which they find themselves. It is this control which is the way to stop individuals cheating and thus confounding ‘The Dilemma’. Again it is the village size factor which allows the inhabitants to monitor themselves, contrary to the view by Olson that sanctions need to be organized outside the group. Such policies need to be backed- up by a system of punishment so that no one will be ‘suckered’.

Robert Wade now pursues the line that if one type of resource can be managed then perhaps other ‘developmental functions’ are also possible, particularly those with a high degree of ‘publicness’. If these functions are in the possibility frontier of the village the lack of external prodding or interference could lead to large savings at a national level. Of course not all villages can adopt similar patterns of response. The author notes that collectivism would be unlikely to work where there are many users, where the boundaries of resources are unclear and where the users are scattered. In such acase, state regulation may be necessary to police resources. In other words the smaller and tighter the community the greater the chance of a successful organization.

This then is a book to bring new light to traditional theoretical connundrums such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma but its main aim is to stress the importance of collectiveness and show it to us in practice. Villages given the right conditions and with certain ‘public’ policies can obtain results similar to, and perhaps better than, those through external influence. There is no doubt that this text makes excellent reading and the reader, it is hoped, will learn not to adopt a blanket approach to rural life in the Indian Sub-continent. But on a more careful note, the sample size is relatively small and care should be taken in making over grandiose deductions from the data. Moreover, are the villages ‘typical’ of those found elsewhere? Nevertheless, this is a stimulat- ing book and one to be read by all those interested in rural development.

MARK COOK Nene College, Northampton

Extension Science: Information Systems in Agricultural Development

NIELS RdLING Cambridge University Press, 1988,233 pp.

Professor Roling’s recent addition to the still limited literature of conceptual nature on agricul- tural extension is to be warmly welcomed on this count. In most of the countries of the Third World, agricultural development is still heavily dependent upon some kind of agricultural extension service for its basic direction, advice and inputs; and yet in the literature the emphasis is so much on the mechanics of doing extension rather than sitting back and examining what it is supposed to be about. Agricultural extension agents are inevitably trained in the