Transitions to clean government : amnesty as an anticorruption measure

Anti-corruption research has been dominated by inquiries into the formal structures of clean governance, while the actual process of changing the culture of corruption has been overlooked. This paper views 'transition to clean government' as a conceptual parallel to 'democratisation' and anti-corruption measures as instances of transitional justice. Contrary to the mainstream scholarship, it argues that: (1) Measures that lead to clean government differ from measures that contribute to its maintenance; and (2) amnesty may play a crucial role in establishing clean government, if it inspires a change in political culture. To illustrate its propositions, this paper applies the literature on transitional justice and democratisation to anti-corruption strategies and re-examines the particular circumstances surrounding amnesty in Hong Kong's successful transformation into one of the cleanest governments in Asia. 反腐敗研究迄今主要是探討廉潔治理的形式結構，而忽視了改變腐敗文化的實際過程。本文將"過渡到廉潔政府" 看作是民主化的觀念同類。本文與主流學術界不同，認為 1)造就廉潔政府的手段不同與維持廉潔政府的手段；2)要確立一個廉潔政府，赦免至關重要，因為它能激發政治文化的變化。本文將轉型正義及民主化的文獻引入反腐策略，考察了香港向亞洲最廉潔政府轉型過程中與赦免有關的具體環境。