Transparency laws, corruption and the quality of government: comparing India and China

ABSTRACT

Transparency laws, such as the Right to Information (RTI) in India and Open Government Information (OGI) in China, seek to confront corruption. They have been able to expand people’s space against corruption and other abuses of power, thus demanding accountability from the powerholders. Instead of particular regimes like democratic or authoritarian, we employ the Quality of Government (QoG) as a context to understand corruption control in India and China. Yet, due to various socio-political limitations, QoG remains inadequate in India; and uneven in China: these cripple the promises of transparency laws. Hence, it is necessary that India prioritizes human development, which shall require better QoG and China addresses its weaker areas in QoG.

KEYWORDS:

• Transparency laws
• Corruption
• Information
• Accountability
• Quality of Government
• Democracy

Acknowledgement

In addition of two anonymous AJPS Reviewers, we are grateful to Patrick Baert and Supatra Sen for their feedback on the early draft of the paper: the usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The Chinese constitution and various prominent leaders invoke a ‘democratic dictatorship of proletariat class’ and ‘democracy’ as a goal. However, power is centralized in one authority – the CCP – without any real opposition party, or the existence of any freedom of expression for alternative viewpoints. With the promulgation of the ‘Provisional Organic Law of Village Committee’, village elections were formally introduced in 1987 (He, 2007); but the actual procedures are highly questionable.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sujay Ghosh

Dr. Sujay Ghosh is Associate Professor of Political Science in Vidyasagar University, India. His research interests include democracy, citizenship, development and Indian politics. At present he is doing research on the various aspects of corruption. He has presented and published research papers at several national and international forums, such as Development Policy Review, Asian Studies Review, Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, International Journal of Asian Studies, Public Integrity and many others.

Yukteshwar Kumar

Dr. Yukteshwar Kumar is a well-known sinologist and the first-ever Deputy Mayor of the UNESCO heritage city of Bath from Asian and non-white descent. He is a political activist, a senior academic at the University of Bath and researched at Peking University as Nehru Fellow. Dr Kumar recently translated and published Prof. Feng Jicai's acclaimed work, Purgatory to Paradise, from Chinese to English and Hindi; and the Bengali version set to be released soon. He has also published a book on learning Chinese. Beyond his translation works, Dr Kumar is a prolific writer, contributing dozens of articles, research papers, and books in Bengali, Chinese, English and Hindi. His opinion pieces have found a platform in reputable publications such as BBC Online, People's Daily, China Daily and The Hindustan Times. Prior to joining the University of Bath in 2007, Dr. Kumar has served at several universities in India.