Adam MastersAustralian National University | ANU · Transnational Research Institute on Corruption
Adam Masters
BA(Hons), PhD
About
46
Publications
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Introduction
Dr Adam Masters is a senior lecturer in criminology in the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the ANU, and Executive Director of the Transnational Research Institute on Corruption. Adam convenes and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on corruption and organised crime. Adam came to academia following a 24-year career with the Australian government. His earlier career included time at the Department of Defence, the Tax Office and eighteen years with the Australian Federal Police.
Publications
Publications (46)
Local government corruption is a phenomenon right across the world. This paper draws upon survey work in Victoria, Australia, to show that citizens believe that corruption exists in local government, that citizens experience corruption in local government, but that they rarely report it to an anti-corruption agency or elsewhere. Even when reported,...
In the late 19th and early 20th century, modern states began to take responsibility for the welfare of citizens. Nations did this in different ways, but primarily in response to the social changes – such as urbanization and industrialization – that meant the traditional providers of welfare like churches and philanthropic organizations were overwhe...
In the concluding chapter, the editors address the central topics of the book as well as some lessons learnt on quality of governance. Public values do matter, but how do they relate (and conflict), with many actors involved in public governance, including at street level and in public-private networks? A broad panorama of values appears to be impo...
In the first chapter, the editors introduce the content and the relevance of this book to the quality of governance and why and how public values matter. Central concepts are defined, the meaning and phases of governance are addressed, including an introduction of the significant public values stemming from the literature. These values are dealt wi...
We expect our governance systems to be robust. When they are challenged by internal or external actors, ideally they are sufficiently flexible and appropriately thought out to cope and function for the betterment of society. A governance system incapable of resisting challenges is soon replaced—or so we would hope. Unfortunately, lived experiences...
“This volume arrives at a time when governance faces new, often dire, challenges and as traditional democratic values strain against the rise of populism and anti-government sentiment. This book should be read by anyone interested the values bases of governance and in exploring good ideas about how to improve policy and management.”
Barry Bozeman,...
Taking a peek through the cultural lens, Masters demonstrates the importance culture has to a shared understanding and achievement of common goals. Values, language, norms, beliefs and assumptions unique to each organization and profession facilitate – or hinder – communication among partners. Here we see that culture plays an important role in sha...
Leadership sets the tone for an organization and is typically linked to the professional culture affiliated with an IGO. More often than not, the leaders of the ITU, Interpol and ICCROM are experienced telecommunication engineers, police or conservators. Masters assesses leadership from three time periods in each organizations – founding leaders; c...
Global issues are often beyond the ability of international government organization to deal with alone. They emerge unexpectedly – the controls of the internet; violently and rapidly – the threat of bio-terrorism; or they are cyclical – the privatization of cultural heritage. These examples Masters has chosen have commonalities – they are global, t...
It is not always about money. To achieve the goals set by member-states and those generated within international government organizations, partners often bring far more to the table than cash. While financial pressure is a constant, partnerships often succeed because of partner expertise; physical resources ranging from things as simple as fuel, to...
Comparing the case studies along the lines of cultures, leadership, resources, ideas and global issues reveals how culture motivates, maintains and even inhibits partnerships. The engineering and the organizational culture at the ITU has created a regime of maintenance for their public-private partnerships, their long relationship with the telecomm...
The historical background, administrative structures and partnerships of the International Telecommunication Union, Interpol and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property have certain path dependency. As technical organizations, diplomatic practices take the back seat as engineers, police and co...
Masters defines global public-private partnerships, international government organizations, professional culture and organizational culture to unpack how these concepts interact in global governance. Each case organization – the International Telecommunication Union, Interpol and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restor...
Ideas frame three questionable factors claimed to motivate global public-private partnerships – have technical organizations shifted their ideology from a neo-Marxist to a neo-liberal; has new public management shifted the posture of international government organizations; and have market-like ideas become attractive for IGOs? While these ideas hav...
Global public-private partnerships influence our daily lives. They are part of the global governance framework – yet our understanding of them is incomplete. Past research has attributed the existence of these partnerships between state, market and civil society actors variously to the influence of leaders, new management ideas, resource deficits a...
This book explores how professional and organisational cultures influence global public-private partnerships, which form a key element of global governance. Using case studies, the partnerships of three international government organisations – the International Telecommunication Union, Interpol and the International Centre for the Study of the Pres...
Purpose
Corruption undermines good governance. Strategies for preventing malfeasance in low corruption environments require a different approach to that applied in high corruption environments. The paper asks if criminological theories and practice contribute to the study and prevention of corruption in public organizations? Do crime prevention te...
Turnbull rose to the prime ministership in 2015 when the ruling Liberal party replaced a serving prime minister: Tony Abbott. Turnbull initially spoke publicly of the new style of leadership he would implement. Some eighteen months later, after a damaging result in the national election in 2016, critics suspect that Turnbull has traded away many of...
Studies of political leadership increasingly include examinations of leadership rhetoric. Yet much of this focus on rhetorical performance is case-specific, typically dealing with heads of government. This chapter introduces a new analytical framework suitable for studies of a larger class of political and public leaders. We derive this framework f...
This chapter presents the first sketch of political rhetoric within the leadership cycle. As an opposition leader, Tony Abbott fell tantalizingly short of the prime-ministership in 2010, relegated to opposing a minority government in a hung parliament. As a leader on the way up, Abbott chose not to be a passive opponent, rather he engaged in an unr...
What do these six case studies tell us about the value of the analytical framework we have derived from the great British politician and philosopher Francis Bacon? We highlight two aspects of Bacon’s very promising concept of public leadership: the sustained role of political leaders in establishing a movement for policy innovation; and the role of...
Should the norms for an office holder in one nation differ from those in another? Clearly the former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr thinks not. His rhetorical style for Diary of a Foreign Minister aims to raise the perceptions of Australia’s foreign minister in the eyes of Carr’s fellow citizens to an equivalency with the United States secret...
Australia first emerged as relevant for studies of modern democracy in James Bryce’s Modern Democracies. Bryce promoted empirical studies of leadership rhetoric, interested especially in the comparatively advanced democratic case of Australian political leadership. Our selection of six cases provide sketches of a group of powerful leaders, each of...
Out of office and called to account before a royal commission, the former prime minister Kevin Rudd demonstrated he had lost none of his popular appeal by winning support from those least likely to empathise with his position—the families of four young Australians who had lost their lives in a tragic failure of public policy under Rudd’s administra...
Noel Pearson is one of Australia’s most experienced and influential indigenous policy advocates. Some critics see him as a conservative ally of conservative political interests. We examine his remarkably well-received speeches on former progressive leader Gough Whitlam which reveal a depth of complexity and political reflection in Pearson’s subtle...
Chapter 4 progresses the leader cycle to unpack the burdens of office experienced by the first female Australian prime minister. The Gillard vignette explores the political rhetoric of gender; not the political rhetoric of party politics. The analysis includes the emerging importance of social media as a vehicle for rhetoric; the velocity of the cu...
‘Words are actions, and leaders know it. This thought-provoking study sheds light on the rhetorical battles that have shaped Australia’s recent political history – and it’s a cracking good read to boot.’ – Dr Dennis Grube, University of Cambridge, UK
This book examines both the rhetorical content of contemporary public leadership and the leadership...
Approaches to social crimes differ widely around the world, with different cultures applying their own standards of what is, or is not, acceptable behaviour. In Australia, the states and territories have been changing their outlook on the sale of sexual services (sex work), those who sell these services (sex workers) and their working environment (...
In late 2015, The Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption presented its final report to the Australian Parliament. This six-volume report, plus a two volume interim report uncovered various forms of corruption by unions and employers in many sectors of society. This was the fourth such commission in recent decades, and the findi...
Corruption and other governance failures in the union movement undermine the positive contribution unions make to any society. Unions represent an important element of democratic governance, providing a political training ground for prospective candidates, campaign funding, electoral support, voter mobilisation and a voice for workers in the politi...
Local government corruption is a phenomenon across the world. This article draws upon survey work in Victoria, Australia, to show that citizens believe that corruption exists in local government and experience it, but rarely report it to an anti-corruption agency or elsewhere. Even when reported, tracing the outcome from state-level authorities to...
Corruption in sport evolving into a global public policy issue. Barely a day goes by without media reports of corruption in one sport or another.
The UNCAC focuses on criminalisation (chapter III) and has sufficient scope to capture corrupt behaviours which have emerged in the sporting world. Article 21 of the UNCAC – bribery in the private sector...
Are policy responses related to experiences or perceptions of corruption? This article examines newspaper reporting of corruption in an Australian jurisdiction and compares these with perceptions of corruption and experiences of corruption in the community. The policy challenge is to understand the gaps between media reporting about corruption, the...
How is corruption in sport evolving into a global public policy issue? In the past century, four trends have affected sport according to Paoli and Donati (2013) – de-amateurisation at the turn of the twentieth century, medicalisation since the 1960s, politicisation and commercialisation to the point where sport is now a business worth more than US$...
Local government corruption is a phenomenon right across the world. This paper draws upon survey work in Victoria, Australia, to show that citizens believe that corruption exists in local government, that citizens experience corruption in local government, but that they rarely report it to an anti-corruption agency or elsewhere. Even when reported,...
According to Huberts (2012) ‘the relevant publics are, in my view, the (or at least an
important) referee’ in determining what is quality of governance. It could thus be argued
quality of governance is the measure by which the governed judge the actions of the
governors and the system used to govern. It is therefore a subjective measure entirely
de...
Global public-private partnerships are part of the global governance framework and influence our daily lives - yet our understanding of them is incomplete. Research has attributed the existence of these partnerships between state, market and civil society actors variously to the influence of leaders, new management ideas, resource deficits and the...
The concept of ‘bureaucratic animosity’ is being developed as a lens to explore ‘quality of governance’. Governance is a complex and contestable term. Supplementing this with a defining concept—that of quality—opens an entirely new can of worms and results in the conceptual question, what is quality of governance? The closest a recent working group...
Triggered by the collapse of the US mortgage market, the global financial crisis (GFC) of 200708 hit most of the Western world hard and fast, presenting governments and citizens with a set of stark, undeniable and immediate realities. This article examines the attempts of three prime ministers Gordon Brown in the UK, Brian Cowen in Ireland and Kevi...
For many people, police included, INTERPOL is an enigma, mentioned on police television shows or in sensationalised media reports. Behind the headline mystique, INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organisation, currently with 188 member countries. It is unique in that it does not have any police powers of its own, rather it support...
The following information provides a brief history of the Australian Federal Police provided as a timely overview of the organisation. As you will see evolution and change is not new to the agency and the Australian Federal Police Association has shared in various forms this history…
The lesson to be learned here is that in whatever form, the Austr...
Projects
Projects (3)
This volume unravels the meaning of public values for the quality of governance, for good and bad governance. It examines the significance of public values in governance practices - in different countries, policy sectors and levels of governance. A series of in-depth studies casts a critical eye over eight central values: democratic legitimacy, accountability, transparency, integrity, lawfulness, effectiveness, professionalism and craftsmanship, and robustness. This unique exercise yields important lessons on the differences in normative interpretation and application of often abstract values in the demanding administrative settings of today. Practitioners, scholars and students of public administration and political science will find the volume a vital resource.
Union corruption in Australia is a social problem that has defied a legal solution for decades. This project aims to apply criminological and social science methods to determine why union corruption in Australia persists.
