Leadership and culture in combating corruption: a comparative analysis

PurposeThis paper analyses the importance of leadership and culture in combating corruption in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the comparative analysis of the effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures in the studies of six selected countries in this special issue of Public Administration and Policy. The contributors in this special issue were invited because of their publications on combating corruption in the six countries.FindingsThe critical variable ensuring the effectiveness of combating corruption is the strong political will of the leadership in changing the culture of corruption in the country by implementing a zero-tolerance policy toward corruption, as shown in Singapore and Hong Kong. In New Zealand’s case, leadership plays a less important role because of the population’s emphasis on equality and egalitarianism and its reliance on the Ombudsman and Serious Fraud Office to curb corruption. However, the corrupt leaderships of Tanaka Kakuei in Japan, Najib Rajak in Malaysia, and Chen Shui-bian in Taiwan, demonstrate clearly their insidious impact of consolidating their kleptocratic rule in these countries.Originality/valueAs the role of leadership and culture in combating corruption has not been given sufficient attention in the literature, this paper attempts to rectify this neglect by demonstrating that the political leaders in Singapore and Hong Kong, and to a lesser extent, New Zealand, have succeeded in minimising corruption while their counterparts in Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia, have failed to do so.