The State Capture Collaborative

It has been 25 years since Joel Hellman and Daniel Kaufmann’s seminal paper on state capture. Over the years, significant work by colleagues around the world has deepened our understanding of the nature and dangers of capture, while national debates—such as those in South Africa—have demonstrated how people can spearhead reform agendas to limit state capture.

In partnership with other innovators, we wish to plant the seeds for a State Capture Collaborative—an initiative aimed at connecting analysts, experts, practitioners and citizens, in order to share evidence, insights and innovations that would help develop country strategies for addressing state capture.

To begin with, in the near future, a community of practice will get underway among diverse partners, focused on addressing state capture.  And in due course, it will also connect with members of the Governance Explorers’ Network interested in the topic.

The State Capture Article, its Index, and Bibliographical Resources

A recent contribution to the State Capture Collaborative is the article “State Capture Matters” — by R4D Sr. Fellow Daniel Kaufmann–, which summarizes the evolution of the field and also presents the new global State Capture Index, which tracks the evolution of state capture across 172 countries over nearly three decades. The data findings highlight key differences between traditional measures of corruption and those of state capture across many countries. Notably, they reveal a relatively higher prevalence of state capture compared to traditional corruption measures in many advanced economies.

The extensive bibliography included at the end of the article points to writings on state capture and related topics over many decades by scholars from around the world.

Explore the State Capture Index Data and its related article as well as a summary blog.