The Focal Power of Anticorruption Law: Insights from Italian State-Building

Abstract

Until recently, it has been taken for granted that laws play an important role in the fight against corruption. However, a recent debate casts doubt on the influence of laws to curb corruption in societies with systemic corruption, i.e. where such laws are most needed. Without a strong rule of law, an efficient bureaucracy, and trustworthy and legitimate politicians, legislation with sanctions will have a limited effect on changing behavior. Rather, given corruption as a collective action problem, it is the empirical and normative expectations of others’ behavior that impedes societies from breaking the vicious cycle. Against this backdrop, this essay asks: what is the role of laws in the fight against systemic corruption? Through a comparative historical analysis of the North-South gap of corruption in Italy since the national unification in 1861, this study finds that the role of law in societies with systemic corruption is to generate focal points for coordinating desirable behavior. However, as the case of Italy reveals, a credible commitment by the state needs to be in place in order for laws to manifest its focal power. In other words, the state can use the law to signal an alternative to the corrupt equilibrium, but if the state lacks credibility, the signal is not likely to be received as desired. Thus, for exploring the role of formal laws in anticorruption, this essay raises the important interaction between legal content, actors, institutions, and contextual circumstances.