Fighting the Curse by Lifting the Curtain

Transparency is frequently invoked as a powerful recipe for countering a number of malfunctions in governance processes. In the context of the resource curse it has increasingly come to the fore as a key mechanism intended to counter corruption and promote developmentally oriented use of natural resources. Karina Mroß scrutinizes the potential impact of transparency on the mechanisms and effects of corruption. A critical assessment of the currently most prominent policy project in this area, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, complements the theoretical discussion. The author argues that the strong reliance on transparency is ineffective because its curbing effects on the resource curse presuppose a number of additional factors. These factors, however, closely coincide with good governance aspects the transparency instrument is supposed to generate in the first place.