Establishing and maintaining the technical anti-corruption assemblage: the Solomon Islands experience

Scholars have sought to explain how and why developing countries establish anti-corruption agencies by examining the strength of national and international institutions, particularly political institutions and actors, international donors and civil society. This article argues that these explanations are inadequate and that explaining the nature of anti-corruption reform in developing countries requires accounting for the transnational technical anti-corruption assemblage. This assemblage comprises individuals, ideas and things that reinforce technical solutions to corruption. This article examines the case of anti-corruption reforms in Solomon Islands during and after the international Regional Assistant Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) intervention (2003–2017). It shows that parliamentarians passed anti-corruption reforms despite declining pressure from donors, relatively weak civil society and wavering political commitment. The article suggests a transnational coalition of national and international actors and objects helped establish and maintain a technical anti-corruption assemblage. Through exclusionary practices, this assemblage helped maintain the technical and apolitical nature of anti-corruption reform. Findings provide insights into the effectiveness of anti-corruption ‘policy transfer’ in Solomon Islands and other developing countries.