When the possibility of wiretapping first became known to Americans they were outraged. Now, in our post 9/11 world, it's accepted that corporations are vested with human rights, and government agencies and corporations use computers to monitor our private lives. David H. Price pulls back the curtain to reveal how the FBI and other government agencies have always functioned as the secret police of American capitalism up to today, where they luxuriate in a near-limitless NSA surveillance of all. Price looks through a roster of campaigns by law enforcement, intelligence agencies and corporations to understand how we got here. Starting with J. Edgar Hoover and the early FBI's alignment with business, his access to 15,000 pages of never-before-seen FBI files shines a light on the surveillance of Edward Said, Andre Gunder Frank and Alexander Cockburn, Native American communists and progressive factory owners. Price uncovers patterns of FBI monitoring and harassing of activists and public figures, providing the vital means for us to understanding how these new frightening surveillance operations are weaponised by powerful governmental agencies that remain largely shrouded in secrecy.

SUNDAY TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR

an ECONOMIST Politics and Current Affairs book of the year

and a DAILY MAIL and TIMES book of the year

'You cannot understand power, wealth and poverty without knowing about Moneyland.' Simon Kuper, New Statesman

2019: democracy is eating itself, inequality is skyrocketing, the system is breaking apart. Why?

Because in 1962, some bankers in London had an idea that changed the world. That idea was called 'offshore'. It meant that, for the first time, thieves could dream big. They could take everything.

Join investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a journey into the hidden world of the new global kleptocrats.

See the poor countries where public money is stolen and the rich ones where it is laundered and invested. Watch the crooks at work and at play, and meet their respectable, white-collar enablers. Learn how the new system works and begin to see how we can tackle it.

How has corruption shaped - and undermined - the history of public life in modern Britain? This collection begins the task of piecing together this history over the past two and a half centuries, from the first assaults on Old Corruption and aristocratic privilege during the late eighteenth century through to the corruption scandals that blighted the worlds of Westminster and municipal government during the twentieth century. It offers the first account that pays equal attention to the successes and limitations of anticorruption reforms and the shifting meanings of 'corruption'. It does so across a range of different sites - electoral, political and administrative, domestic and colonial - presenting new research on neglected areas of reform, while revisiting well known scandals and corrupt practices. -- .

This book examines corruption in public procurement in three Member States of the EU, reviewing their different approaches to combating corruption, and the extent to which the transparency principle is applied in their procurement systems. The focus of the work is on the contrast between the unsuccessful procurement legislation of a relatively young Member State (Bulgaria) and its attempt to curb corruption by expanding the scope of application of the transparency principle, and two examples of procurement systems where corruption is limited adequately, without an excess of information procedural requirements (Germany and Austria). The book scrutinizes the transparency rules, procurement participants, and responsible institutions in the award of procurements in these countries. It discusses in detail the types of infringements involving corruption as well as their link to infringements of the transparency principle. It compares and examines the systems of control and appeal against a contracting authority's actions within the various legislative schemes, and highlights the legislative weaknesses which fail to reduce corruption. The comparative analysis between the Bulgarian public procurement system and the German and Austrian systems is carried out through detailed research not only with regard to adherence to the transparency principle, but also to the use of other mechanisms to limit corruption, insofar as these solutions are appropriate and could be adapted in other countries currently lacking sufficient anti-corruption measures.

Corruption is an almost universal and persistent feature of the modern state. Commentators primarily view corruption as a major obstacle to development, whereas dissenting voices claim that corruption has the power to facilitate trade that would otherwise not have taken place. This comprehensive collection presents the most significant works contributing to our understanding of this debate, focusing on the key conceptual and theoretical issues and discussing anti-corruption policies. Alongside an original introduction by the editors, this collection is a highly valuable asset to scholars and academics alike.

'one of the year's most exciting releases' - The Herald China is building the world's first digital totalitarian state, a system of hitherto unimaginable social and political control. Internet freedom has been eliminated and ubiquitous surveillance cameras employ the latest facial recognition technology. Through flagrant cyber espionage, it has plundered Western technology on a massive scale, bullied Western tech companies and academics (though many have been willing accomplices) and intimidated critics worldwide. In doing so, it has become a model for aspiring dictators everywhere. Ian Williams examines the extraordinary rise of the Chinese surveillance state, showing how it has been driven by the enigmatic Xi Jinping, now effectively president for life, and how it impacts the daily lives of Chinese citizens, particularly dissidents and those from ethnic minorities. Supporting interviews and first-hand accounts from those whose lives have been turned upside down or worse highlight the chilling and ruthless efficiency with which the government can now act. The book also considers the wider implications for the rest of the world. How to deal with an increasingly strident, aggressive Beijing is one of the biggest challenges facing the West in what has become a technological Cold War.

Since 2015, Poland's populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the will of the executive. Political rights have been radically restricted, and the Party has captured the entire state apparatus. The speed and depth of these antidemocratic movements took many observers by surprise: until now, Poland was widely regarded as an example of a successful transitional democracy. Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy? These answers are formulated against a backdrop of current worldwide trends towards populism, authoritarianism, and what is sometimes called 'illiberal democracy'. As this book argues, the Polish variant of 'illiberal democracy' is an oxymoron. By undermining the separation of powers, the PiS concentrates all power in its own hands, rendering any democratic accountability illusory. There is, however, no inevitability in these anti-democratic trends: this book considers a number of possible remedies and sources of hope, including intervention by the European Union.

This book presents an analysis of five anticorruption agencies (ACAs) from Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia, exploring the impact of organisational factors and leadership on their enforcement patterns during the first decade of the transitional reforms (2001-2012). Contrary to the conventional theory of agency insulation, the analysis reveals that the ACAs' de facto autonomy was not crucially shaped by their statutory independence, but rather by the reputational management of their leaders. The book draws on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative analysis to document these reputational strategies and how they shaped the ACAs' de facto autonomy. The findings also suggest that that the ACAs' organisational model - defined by the delegated mandate and powers (preventative vs suppressive) - represented a key variable that mediated under which conditions high de facto autonomy can be achieved. The book offers contributions to the study of anticorruption policy and ethics regulation, as well as the wider inquiry into drivers of agency independence, particularly in transitional contexts.

Angola is poised between a past marked by civil war and corruption, and a future of potential economic development. This book examines the post-Civil War period which began in 2002 and saw the rise of a corrupt ruling elite, as well as recent developments in the country. These include the efforts of the current President, Joao Lourenco, to reform the regime through political openness, economic growth and a crackdown on corruption. Rui Santos Verde analyses the country's recent history of corruption and the current attempts at reform in order to determine whether economic and political development is on the horizon for Angola, or whether these reforms are simply a move towards consolidating President Lourenco's personal power.

Paramilitaries, crime, and thousands of disappeared in official numbers - the so-called 'war on drugs' has perpetuated violence in parts of Latin America, at times precisely in regions of economic growth. Legal and illegal economy are difficult to distinguish. A failure of state institutions to provide security for its citizens does not sufficiently explain this. This book offers a detailed analysis of the role of the state in violence: To what extent and for whom do states produce order and disorder, by devising security policies within the 'fight against drugs'? Which social forces support and drive such policies? This first comparative study of Colombian and Mexican security policies employs state theory and critical political economy to understand recent dynamics of violence in both contexts. It highlights how the 'war on drugs' has exacerbated contradictions driven by a particular economic model, and simultaneously resorts to discourses which criminalize precisely those that this model has radically disadvantaged.

This book provokes fresh ways of thinking about small developing States within the transnational legal order for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation (TAMLO). From the global wars on drugs and terror to journalistic exposes such as the 'Paradise', 'Panama' and 'Pandora' Papers, the Commonwealth Caribbean has been discursively stigmatised as a mythical island paradise of 'rogue' States. Not infrequently, their exercise of regulatory self-determination has been presented as the selling of their economic sovereignty to facilitate shady business deals and illicit finance from high-net-worth individuals, kleptocrats, tax-dodgers, organised crime networks and terrorist financiers. This book challenges conventional wisdom that Commonwealth Caribbean States are among the 'weakest links' within the global ecosystem to counter illicit finance. It achieves this by unmasking latent interests, and problematising coercive extraterritorial regulatory and surveillance practices, along the onshore/offshore and Global North/South axes. Interdisciplinary in its outlook, the book will appeal to policymakers, regulatory and supervisory authorities, academics and students concerned with better understanding legal and development policy issues related to risk-based regulatory governance of illicit finance. The book also provides an interesting exposition of substantive legal and policy issues arising from money laundering related to corruption and politically exposed persons, offshore finance, and offshore Internet gambling services.

After her beloved dad got addicted to right-wing talk radio and Fox News, Jen Senko feared he would never be the same again... Frank Senko had always known how to have a good time. Despite growing up in a poverty-stricken family during the Depression and having to fight his way to middle-class status as an adult, he tended to look on the bright side. But after a job change forced Frank to begin a long car commute every day, his daughter Jen noticed changes in his personality and beliefs. Long hours on the road listening to talk radio commentators like Rush Limbaugh sucked her father into a suspicion-laden worldview dominated by conspiracy theories, fake news, and rants about the "coastal elite" and "libtards" trying to destroy America. Over the course of a few years, Jen's dad went from a nonpolitical, open-minded Democrat to a radical, angry, and intolerant right-wing devotee who became a stranger to those closest to him. As politics began to take precedence over everything else in her father's life, Jen was mystified. What happened to her dad? Was there anything she could do to help? And, most importantly, would he ever be his lovable self again? Jen began the search for answers, and found them... as well stories from countless other families like her own. Based on the award-winning documentary, The Brainwashing of My Dad uncovers the alarming right-wing strategy to wield the media as a weapon against our very democracy. Jen's story shows us how Fox News and other ultra-conservative media outlets are reshaping the way millions of Americans view the world, and encourages us to fight back.

**Pre-order INVASION: RUSSIA'S BLOODY WAR AND UKRAINE'S FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL now** FROM THE AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST and #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF COLLUSION A gripping investigative account of how Russia's spies helped elect Donald Trump, backed Brexit, murdered enemies and threatened the very basis of western democracy. NEW AND UPDATED EDITION 'Luke Harding is one of the best reporters in the world . . . [they are] an oustanding writer, stuck in the beating heart of political and criminal power, sinking their teeth in and never letting go.' ROBERT SAVIANO 'Shadow State raises fresh questions about the way the UK government has handled claims of Kremlin interference in Britain's democratic processes.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'If you doubt that hostile foreign powers were happy to assist Britain into decline, I recommend Shadow State . . . dazzling and meticulous.' OBSERVER 'Excellent.' THE SCOTSMAN 'Reads like a thriller.' IRISH TIMES 'Detailed and compelling.' GUARDIAN *** No terrorist group has deployed a nerve agent in a civilian area or used a radioactive mini-bomb in London. The Kremlin has done both. Shadow State is a riveting and alarming investigation into the methods Russia has used to wage an increasingly bold war in the UK and beyond. In this updated edition, featuring a new afterword, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Luke Harding uncovers fake news, cyber intrusions, dirty money and ruthless spies in disguise, showing how Vladimir Putin helped elect Donald Trump, backed Brexit, and now threatens the very basis of Western democracy itself. 'A superb piece of work . . . essential reading for anyone who cares for his country.' JOHN LE CARRE, on Collusion

This book examines the phenomenon of 'grand corruption' in Kuwait and the pattern in the wider region. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the work places corruption in its sociological, political and economic context to explore the relationship between the characteristics of Kuwait as a state with an endemic corruption problem. It then focuses on laws and regulations as key problem-solving mechanisms. In doing so, it identifies, explores, and assesses the existing counter-corruption laws and regulations in Kuwait in a broad socio-political-economic context. The work goes beyond doctrinal legal research, employing empirical methodology based on semi-structured interviews with elite politicians and professional experts from criminal justice and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These valuable and original insights are reflected upon throughout the study. The grand corruption that permeates the tier of high-profile officials in Kuwait is replicated in many developing countries where accountability mechanisms regularly suffer from lack of enforcement. The appeal of this book is its application to numerous jurisdictions, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Middle East in particular. It will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and policymakers working in the areas of financial crime and corruption.

When towing the party line meant lying to the American people, brave government employees took to social media to share the inside scoop. Experiencing firsthand President Donald Trump's disregard for truth, rogue government employees took to social media as an outlet for anonymized outrage, fact-checking, and a call to action. The #ALTGOV Twitter movement subverted official statements to remind the American public that all was not well in the White House but that there was something they could do about it. This is the story of how the same social media technologies that fractured America have helped rogue government workers and concerned citizens work to keep it together. Government employees who were first disappointed in the 2016 election outcome and then horrified by things like a ban on Muslim immigrants, the repeal of Net Neutrality, the deletion of climate change information from EPA websites found themselves searching for a way to take a stand. Beginning with tweets from the parks about the Inauguration Day crowd, the #AltGov Twitter accounts offered followers context, truth, and opportunities to take real-world action to support human rights, privacy rights, and science. Followers say they offer hope. They've also faced challenges from their bosses in the government, from trolls and bots, and from each other. Amanda Sturgill offers the first real look behind the curtain as AltGov members struggled to work effectively with others across a spectrum of goals and motivations, while facing their own fears of being discovered or even inadvertently causing the harm they are trying to forestall. The AltGov movement shows us that social media is more than a megaphone-it's a way for everyday people to live out democratic ideals and make a difference.

The author tests the hypothesis that hubris and the Bathsheba syndrome tend to affect all top leaders, by zooming in on the best known and very highest executives of our own day and age, and examines the psychological forces tugging at the top level of political leadership.

* Provides an easy-to-digest, apolitical, and holistic view of corruption, covering types, methods, trends, challenges, and overall impact, as well as the necessary steps to combat it. * An essential guide for investigators, compliance professionals, academics, educators, and everyday citizens seeking to better serve, support, and protect their communities. * The only comprehensive anti-corruption guide written from the perspective of a law enforcement professional experienced in dissecting corruption both on the micro and macro levels.

What if you could peer into the minds of an entire population? What if you could target the weakest with rumours that only they saw?

In 2016, an obscure British military contractor turned the world upside down. Funded by a billionaire on a crusade to start his own far-right insurgency, Cambridge Analytica combined psychological research with private Facebook data to make an invisible weapon with the power to change what voters perceived as real.

The firm was created to launch the then unknown Steve Bannon's ideological assault on America. But as it honed its dark arts in elections from Trinidad to Nigeria, 24-year-old research director Christopher Wylie began to see what he and his colleagues were unleashing.

He had heard the disturbing visions of the investors. He saw what CEO Alexander Nix did behind closed doors. When Britain shocked the world by voting to leave the EU, Wylie realised it was time to expose his old associates. The political crime of the century had just taken place - the weapon had been tested - and nobody knew.