ABSTRACT
State Capture may well be as old as the State. Yet it is still insufficiently understood. The concept of state capture challenges the conventional definition of corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain and necessitates a dedicated effort to measure and analyze the phenomenon. In advancing the notion of state capture, the initial focus was on powerful non-state actors that unduly influenced or “captured” the state, shaping the rules of the game, rather than getting around the set of existing rules. This early conceptualization relied on a survey of firms in economies in transition. Building on that foundation and integrating subsequent evolutions, and mindful of a major empirical gap, Kaufmann presents research toward a worldwide index of state capture. It seeks to measure not only efforts of unduly influential non-state agents, but also of state actors, who shape the rules of the game and institutions for their benefit at the expense of the public interest. The initial State Capture Index highlights large differences across countries and over time, pointing to a relatively higher prevalence of state capture compared with traditional corruption measures in advanced economies, as well as differences across regions. Kaufmann suggests reformulating the traditional definition of corruption, allowing for actions that shape the rules of the game, which, while unethical and at the expense of the public good, may not be strictly illegal. Measuring state capture enables identification of countries where capture is rising yet far from full capture, facilitating prevention. Further, a unified empirical framework, measuring the phenomena in both democratic and autocratic countries, allowing for non-state and state actors to be ‘captors’, may shed light on whether state capture in fragile or transition democracies may increase the risk of descent into autocracy.
