Let the Public React

As fighting corruption is heralded as a main panacea of economic development, increased involvement of families in the politics of many countries may, at first blush, appear to increase chances of conflicts of interest. Kaczynski in Poland, Kirchner in Argentina, Abe and Fukuda in Japan. Also, the candidates: Clinton, Royal...

Corruption can be prevented through imposing restrictions, supports one approach. The World Bank, for example, prohibits employment of close relatives. It allows, however, employment of spouses/partners, as long as one of them does not report to the other.

The Doing Business approach to preventing corruption advocates disclosure of

potential conflicts of interest to the public. The public was indeed aware that the two Kaczynski are twin brothers, that Mr. and Mrs. Kirchner are spouses. It also knew that Mr. Abe is a grandson of a former prime-minister and that Mr. Fukuda is a son of another one.  The public put some of them in and took some of them out of office.

Disclosure of interests and availability of information are the principles of transparent government. Hopefully, transparency reforms ongoing in many countries will foster a healthier business environment and enable more and more people to enjoy the benefits of economic development.