Scandals,Media and Good Governance in China and Kenya

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that democratic governments listen to their populations, while authoritarian governments do not. This paper questions the extent to which this dynamic applies in cases of government scandals, using the illustrative cases of China and Kenya. We expect democratic countries with free media to be responsive and authoritarian states to ignore public pressure. Counter to this expectation, however, authoritarian China is more responsive to public pressure to clean up scandals than democratic Kenya. Using case studies and quantitative analysis, we argue that while democracy and free media are important for government responsiveness to scandal, they are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions. We assert that political will, state capacity to respond and high public expectations for state action are also necessary.

Keywords

Scandal regime type governance public expectations political will state capacity China Kenya

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amnesty International (2009) Kenya – Amnesty International Report 2009. London: Amnesty International.

Amnesty International (2010) Kenya – Amnesty International Report 2010. London: Amnesty International.

Ansfield

Buckley

(2013) China Focusing Graft Enquiry on Ex-Official. The New York Times, 15 December, p. A1.

Bandurski

(2008) Press Controls Feed China’s Food Problem. The Wall Street Journal Asia, 7 October, p.16.

Bates

(1981) Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

BBC News Staff (2004) Moi ‘Ordered’ Goldenberg Payment. BBC News, 17 February.

BBC News Staff (2006a) ‘Taped Evidence’ in Kenya Scandal. BBC News, 9 February.

BBC News Staff (2006b) Travel Ban in Kenya Scam Inquiry. BBC News, 14 February

BBC News Staff (2008) Probe into Kenya Hotel Sell-Off. BBC News, 30 June.

10.

Bennett

(2004) Case Study Methods: Design, Use, and Comparative Advantages. In: Sprinz

Wolinsky-Nahmias

(eds) Models, Numbers, and Cases: Methods for Studying International Relations. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

11.

Besley

Burgess

(2001) Political Agency, Government Responsiveness and the Role of the Media. European Economic Review 45(4–6): 629–640.

12.

Besley

Burgess

(2002) The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4): 1415–1451.

13.

Brady

A-M

(2008) Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

14.

Branch

Cheeseman

(2009) Democratization, Sequencing, and State Failure in Africa: Lessons from Kenya. African Affairs 108: 1–26.

15.

Brunetti

Weder

(2003) A Free Press Is Bad News for Corruption. Journal of Public Economics 87(7–8): 1801–1824.

16.

Business Daily Staff (2008) MPs Censure Kimunya over Sale of Grand Regency Hotel. Business Daily (Kenya), 2 July.

17.

Captial Reporter (2010) Kibaki Vows Kenya Media Freedom. Capital News, 18 March.

18.

Chen

(2000) Subsistence Crises, Managerial Corruption and Labour Protests in China. China Journal, 4–63.

19.

China Labor Bulletin (2009) Going It Alone: The Workers’ Movement in China 2007–2008. Research Reports. Hong Kong: China Labor Bulletin, pp.1–57.

20.

Colazingari

Rose-Ackerman

(1998) Corruption in a Paternalistic Democracy: Lessons from Italy for Latin America. Political Science Quarterly 113(3): 447–470.

21.

Collier

Levitsky

(1997) Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research. World Politics 49(3): 430–451.

22.

Daily Nation. (2006) The Nation (Kenya) - AAGM: War On Graft Is, Indeed, Lost. The Daily Nation. Nairobi, Kenya. Available at: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/-/1192/136750/-/r3mxt2z/-/index.html (accessed 15 April 2014).

23.

Dercon

Gutierrez-Romero

(2012) Triggers and Characteristics of the 2007 Kenyan Electoral Violence. World Development 40(4): 731–744.

24.

DFID (2008) Briefing Note: Media and Good Governance. London: BBC World Service Trust and DFID Politics and the State Team.

25.

Dimitrov

(2009) Piracy and the State: The Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

26.

Downs

Saunders

(1998) Legitimacy and the Limits of Nationalism: China and the Diaoyu Islands. International Security 23(3): 114–146.

27.

Egorov

Guriev

Sonin

(2009) Why Resource-poor Dictators Allow Freer Media: A Theory and Evidence from Panel Data. American Political Science Review 103(4): 645–668.

28.

Ekeh

(1975) Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement. Comparative Studies in Society and History 17(1): 91–112.

29.

Freedom House (2010) Combined Average Ratings – Independent Countries. Washington DC: Freedom House.

30.

Freedom House (2011) Freedom of the Press. Washington DC: Freedom House.

31.

Gallagher

(2004) China: The Limits of Civil Society in a Late Leninist State. In: Alagappa

(ed.) Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 419–452.

32.

George

Bennett

(2005) Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

33.

Gerring

(2001) Social Science Methodology: A Criterial Framework. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

34.

Government of Kenya (2007) Vision 2030: The Popular Version. Nairobi: Government Press.

35.

Gutierrez-Romero

(2010) Decentralization, Accountability and the 2007 MPs Elections in Kenya. Center for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford, Working Paper Series.

36.

Hand

(2006) Using Law for a Righteous Purpose: The Sun Zhigang Incident and Evolving Forms of Citizen Action in the People’s Republic of China. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 45(1): 114–195.

37.

Hassid

(2011) Four Models of the Fourth Estate: A Typology of Contemporary Chinese Journalists. China Quarterly 208: 813–832.

38.

Hassid

(2012) Safety Valve or Pressure Cooker? Blogs in Chinese Political Life. Journal of Communication 62(2): 212–230.

39.

Hawaii Free Press Staff (2009) Wikileaks Writers Killed in Kenya. Hawaii Free Press, 9 March. Available at: http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/502/Wikileaks-writers-killed-in-Kenya.aspx (accessed 15 April 2014).

40.

Hepple

Smith

(2010) Wikileaks Cables: Rampant Corruption ‘Could Push Kenya Back into Violence’. The Guardian (UK), 8 December. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-kenya-violence-china (accessed 15 April 2014).

41.

Hirschman

(1970) Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

42.

Kaiman

(2013) Liu Zhijun, China’s Ex-railway Minister, Sentenced to Death for Corruption, The Guardian (UK), 8 July. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/08/liu-zhijun-sentenced-death-corruption (accessed 15 April 2014).

43.

Karanja

(2003) Kenya: Corruption Scandal. World Press Review 50: 10.

44.

Kuklinski

Stanga

(1979) Political Participation and Government Responsiveness: The Behavior of California Superior Courts. American Political Science Review 73(4): 1090–1099.

45.

Liebman

(2005) Watchdog or Demagogue? The Media in the Chinese Legal System. Columbia Law Review 105(1): 1–157.

46.

Lines

(2009) Governance and the Media: A Survey of Public Opinion. London: BBC World Service Trust.

47.

Mamdani

(1996) Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

48.

Manion

(1996) Corruption by Design: Bribery in Chinese Enterprise Licensing. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 12(1): 167–195.

49.

Markovits

Silverstein

(1988) Introduction: Power and Process in Liberal Democracies. In: Markovits

Silverstein

(eds) The Politics of Scandal: Power and Process in Liberal Democracies. New York, NY: Holmes and Meier.

50.

Montinola

Jackman

(2002) Sources of Corruption: A Cross-Country Study. British Journal of Political Science 32(1): 147–170.

51.

Murunga

Nasong’o

(2006) Bent on Self-destruction: The Kibaki Regime in Kenya, Journal of Contemporary African Studies 24(1): 1–28.

52.

Mutua

(2011) Political Class Testing Kenyans’ Patience. Daily Nation (Kenya), 22 January. Available at: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Political+class+testing+Kenyans+patience+/-/440808/1094010/-/10yyaylz/-/index.html (accessed 15 April 2014).

53.

Odugbemi

Norris

(2010) Assessing the Extent to Which the News Media Act as Watchdogs, Agenda Setters, and Gatekeepers. In: Norris

(ed.) Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications: 379–394.

54.

Osnos

(2012) Boss Rail. The New Yorker, 22 October, 44–53.

55.

People’s Abstracts (人民文摘) (2004) Gaining Perspective on the ‘Seven Hour Time Zone’ Movie Incident (透视电影《时差七小时》事件). People’s Abstracts (人民文摘) 12.

56.

Reporters Without Borders (2010) Worldwide Press Freedom Index [Online]. Available at: http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2010,1034.html (accessed 15 April 2014).

57.

Rice

(2009) Two Kenyan Rights Activists Shot Dead. The Guardian (UK), 6 March. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/06/kenyan-activists-shot-dead (accessed 15 April 2014).

58.

Ringera

(2007) Corruption in the Judiciary. Presentation of the Honourable Mr Justice (Rtd) Aaron G Ringera, Director and Chief Executive of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

59.

Rose-Ackerman

(1999) Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Reform. London and New York: Cambridge University Press.

60.

Rotich

(2010) Kenyans Suffer from an Ambivalence That May Soon Stymie the New Order. Saturday Nation (Kenya), 13 December. Available at: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1071820/-/nu9tvhz/-/index.html (accessed 15 April 2014).

61.

Sartori

(1970) Concept Misinformation in Comparative Politics. American Political Science Review 64(4): 1033–1053.

62.

Schatzberg

(2001) Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: Father, Family, Food, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

63.

Shirk

(2011) Changing Media, Changing China. In: Shirk

(ed.) Changing Media, Changing China. New York, NY: Oxford University Press: 1–37.

64.

Stapenhurst

(2000) The Media’s Role in Curbing Corruption. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.

65.

The Star Editorial Board (2012) Kenya: Kibaki Outstanding on Press Freedom. The Star, Kenya, 13 December. Available at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201212170484.html (accessed 15 April 2014).

66.

Thompson

(2000) Political Scandal: Power and Visibility in the Media Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.

67.

Transparency International Kenya (2003) Fools Gold: The Abuse of Export Compensation Schemes in Kenya and Argentina. Kenya, Nairobi: Transparency International.

68.

Transparency International (2010) Corruption Perceptions Index. Available at: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results (accessed 15 April 2014).

69.

Tsai

(2007) Accountability without Democracy : Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

70.

Tsinghua University (2010) A New Way of Thinking About Maintaining Stability (维稳新思流). Southern Weekend (南方周末), 14 April.

71.

US Embassy Nairobi (2009) Visas Donkey: Corruption 212(F) Visa Denial. Secret cable to US Secretary of State released via Wikileaks.

72.

Van Ryzin

(2004) Expectations, Performance, and Citizen Satisfaction with Urban Services. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 23(3): 433–448.

73.

Vasagar

(2005) Kenyan President Faces Rebellion on Sleaze. The Guardian (UK), 24 February. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/feb/24/kenya.jeevanvasagar (accessed 15 April 2014).

74.

Wedeman

(2004) The Intensification of Corruption in China. China Quarterly 180: 895–921.

75.

World Values Survey (2008) Official Aggregate 1981–2005, Madrid: World Values Survey Association, Aggregate File Producer ASEP/JDS.

76.

Wolf

(2006) Immunity or Accountability? Daniel Toroitich arap Moi: Kenya’s First Retired President. In: Southall

Melber

(eds) Legacies of Power. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

77.

Wolf

Logan

Owiti

(2004) A New Dawn? Popular Optimism in Kenya after the Transition. Afrobarometer Working Paper.

78.

Xinhua News Agency (2008) Crisis Management Helps China’s Dairy Industry Recover. XinhuaNet English, 25 September. Available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/25/content_10112354.htm (accessed 15 April 2014).

79.

Zhu Zhe (2007) More Than 460 Rescued from Brick Kiln Slavery. China Daily. 15 June. Available at: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-06/15/content_894802.htm (accessed 1 February 2011).

80.

Zhu Zhe and Cui Xiaohuo (2009) Two Get Death in Tainted Milk Case. China Daily. 23 January. Available at: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-01/23/content_7422983.htm (accessed 15 April 2014).