Everyday Corruption and the State Citizens and Public Officials in Africa

This detailed study of everyday corruption in three different African countries highlights its alarming prevalence. The authors analyze the various forms of corruption; the corrupt strategies public officials resort to; and how these forms and strategies have become embedded in the daily administrative practices of the state. The authors investigate the roots of the system, notably the growing inability of weakened states in Africa to reward their employees adequately or deliver the services on the scale expected of the state in the age of structural adjustment and collapsing commodity prices.

Giorgio Blundo currently holds a senior position at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales at Marseille. Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan is Professor of Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Marseilles and Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.