Moving ‘from political won’t to political will’ for more feasible interventions to tackle serious organised crime and corruption
May 2022
Briefing Note 01
Professor Heather Marquette, University of Birmingham
PUBLICATION SUMMARY
This briefing note looks at the links between (lack of) political will and serious organised crime (SOC) and corruption. It suggests a new way to better understand political will and why a lack of political will may appear to exist. The lens of ‘political want’, ‘political can’ and ‘political must’ introduced here, based on Carmen Malena’s (2009) work on ‘getting from political won’t to political will’, can help those tasked with developing counter-SOC and anti-corruption strategies and interventions to move beyond seeing political will as a barrier, in order to better develop more politically and technically feasible reforms and approaches.
This briefing note adapts this framework and suggests an approach individuals and teams can use in their day-to-day work to trigger new ways of thinking about the challenge and to suggest potential ways to ‘unlock’ political will for reforms.
