ABSTRACT
Increasing attention has been focused on the analysis of corruption in its historical, social, political and economic context. While this is not a new development, recent studies have attempted to analyse corruption as a dynamic phenomenon, part of specific national and regional patterns of state-society relations, developmental trajectories, international linkages and political-economic structures. If these approaches can provide important explanations for the development of corruption, they can also apply to studies of anti-corruption policies. This approach informs the analysis contained in this article, which discusses the context for anti-corruption strategies in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), and the role of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), following the transfer of sovereignty from Britain to the People's Republic of China in 1997.
