TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVES: ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC POLICIES APPLIED BY ARGENTINA’S ANTI-CORRUPTION OFFICE, 2000-2013

Abstract

With greater democratization and economic globalization throughout the modern world, increasing concern over the prevalence of the corruption has translated into policy action within the international sphere. Thus, international conventions debating anti-corruption and governance strategies have recognized the role of specialized anti-corruption bodies within individual governments. Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office represents a unique case for a country’s response to international standards and development of specified anti-corruption policies. Nonetheless, the lack of information available as to the agency’s progress in developing anti-corruption policies since its inception necessitates deeper analysis in order to answer the question of what has been done and whether these policies fulfill international standards as well as the Anti-Corruption Office’s own objectives. Using the United Nations Convention Against Corruption as the frame of reference for defining the most salient anti-corruption policies for specialized prevention agencies, this thesis’s investigation reveals that the Anti-Corruption Office in Argentina has only remained partially implemented international requirements, and furthermore has encountered some fundamental difficulties in public policy management, thus impeding the full realization of its own policy objectives.