State Capture and Grand Corruption (868M9)

15 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

State capture is a type of systematic corruption. Narrow interest groups take control of the institutions and processes that make public policy. This excludes other parts of the public, whose interests those institutions are supposed to serve.

Capture can be led by business groups or a political party and its allies. It has manifested in different ways in different parts of the world and over time. It’s closely associated with democratic backsliding and with grand corruption by kleptocrats – who then launder the proceeds in international illicit financial flows.

In this module, we:

• examine the mechanisms through which the state can be captured
• compare patterns of capture across countries from across the world
• analyse ways of preventing, halting and reversing capture.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.