Dr. Joseph Pozsgai is a Specially Appointed Associate Professor in the School of Human Sciences of Osaka University (Japan). He is the founder of the Japan Network of Anti-Corruption Researchers (JANAR), member of the Steering Committee on (Anti-)Corruption and Integrity of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Economic Criminology (Elsevier). For over a decade, he has been involved in policy research and practice, focusing on corruption tolerance and the political characteristics of national anti-corruption reforms.
Lectures on political and global studies. Research activities on corruption and institutions in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
- Assist John Jay College in developing the Western Hemisphere Anticorruption Index (WHACI) project, which explores the scope of corruption at the regional, sub-regional, and national levels and the impact of corruption control interventions in the focus countries.
- Support John Jay College in its effort to increase user-friendly, systematic, and updated information on anti-corruption tools by conducting an analysis of how focus countries in the Western Hemisphere comply with their anti-corruption treaty obligations. (Visit the WHACI platform.)
- A report that provides a measurement and review of the level of fulfillment of anti-corruption obligations in each focus country in the Western Hemisphere. (Read the WHACI report.)
Research activities on corruption and institutions in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Research project: "The Social Origin of Corruption".
Coordination with partner universities in Latin America for the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Human Capital Development Program. This Program is part of the Inter-University Exchange Project for achieving a global education and contributing toward global peace, supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
Research divided in two lines of inquiry:
- The political characteristics of international anti-corruption commissions in Central America’s Northern Triangle.
- The design and implementation of an international qualitative and quantitative database of corruption and anti-corruption news, later known as the Daily Corruption Project.
- Produced the Executive Report on the Monitoring and Evaluation of the National Anti-Corruption Policies.
- Produced the Annual Report on the Progress of Implementation of Measures against Corruption.
- Supported the production of the Guidelines for the Reporting on Requests of Access to Information (RM 301-2009-PCM) and the Guidelines for the Implementation of the Standard Website of Transparency in Public Agencies (DS 063-2010-PCM).
- Supported the training of public servants on the areas of public ethics, transparency, access to public information, and citizen monitoring.
Doctoral Program in International Public Policy. Dissertation title: "Anti-Corruption Demands and Government's Defense: The Case of Peru, 2000-2014".
Masters Program in International Area Studies. Thesis title: "Citizens' Corruption Tolerance in Peru: A Behavioral Approach".
Political institutions, Latin American politics, law, political analysis, research methodology, etc.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2021. "Corruption tolerance as a process of moral, social, and political cognition: evidence from Latin America," Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol. 77, pp. 381–404. DOI: 10.1007/s10611-021-09995-6.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph and Pastor Sanz, Iván. 2021. "Mapping the (anti-)corruption field: key topics and changing trends, 1968-2020," Journal of Computational Social Science, Vol. 4, pp. 851–881. DOI: 10.1007/s42001-021-00110-2.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2020. "The abuse of entrusted power for private gain: meaning, nature and theoretical evolution," Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 433-455. DOI: 10.1007/s10611-020-09903-4.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2019. "El ciclo político de la lucha contra la corrupción: La experiencia del Perú con su primera Comisión Nacional Anticorrupción," Derecho & Sociedad, No. 52, pp. 81-96. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12355553.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2018. "The Political Cycle of Fighting Corruption: Peru's Experience with a First National Anti-Corruption Commission," Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-19. DOI: 10.5334/sta.600.
- Pozsgai, Joseph. 2017. "La corrupción como estrés sobre el sistema político: cuatro escenarios que explican las estrategias de defensa del statu quo," Revista de Ciencia Política y Gobierno, Vol. 4, No. 8, pp. 83-110. DOI: 10.18800/rcpg.201702.004.
- Pozsgai, Joseph. 2017. "A Systems Model on Corruption and Anti-Corruption Reform: International, Domestic Pressure, and Government Strategies to Preserve the Status Quo," Air & Space Power Journal--Africa & Francophonie, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 40-55. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12355556.
- Pozsgai Alvarez, Joseph. 2017. "Putting Out the Fire of Anti-Corruption Demands: The Symbolic Adoption of a National Anti-Corruption Office in Peru, 2007-2008," European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 15-32. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12355544.
- Pozsgai Alvarez, Joseph. 2016. "Political Will for Anti-Corruption Reform: The Weight of Political Context in the Making of a National Anti-Corruption Plan in Peru," Iberoamericana, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 63-84. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12355547.
- Pozsgai Alvarez, Joseph. 2015. "Low-Level Corruption Tolerance: An 'Action-Based' Approach for Peru and Latin America," Journal of Politics in Latin America, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 99-129. DOI: 10.1177/1866802X1500700204.
- Pozsgai Alvarez, Joseph. 2014. "Operationalizing High-Level Corruption Tolerance in Peru: Attitude-Behavior Congruency and the 2006 Presidential Elections," 筑波大学地域研究 (Area Studies Tsukuba), No. 35, pp. 183-206. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12355550.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph (ed.). 2021. The Politics of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Latin America. New York: Routledge.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2021. "Introduction: Locating anti-corruption agencies within the politics of anti-corruption in Latin America," in The Politics of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Latin America, pp. 3-15, by Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph (ed.). New York: Routledge.
- Vera, Sofia and Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2021. "The Politics of Building Anti-Corruption Institutions: The Case of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Peru," in The Politics of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Latin America, pp. 71-91, by Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph (ed.). New York: Routledge.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2021. "Conclusion: The Anti-Corruption Agency Space in Latin America," in The Politics of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Latin America, pp. 290-296, by Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph (ed.). New York: Routledge.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph and Cevallos, Fernando. 2020. "Challenges for Compliance and Integrity Management in Latin America," in Handbuch Compliance-Management: Konzeptionelle Grundlagen, praktische Erfolgsfaktoren, globale Herausforderungen (3rd edition), pp. 1335-1353, by Josef Wieland, Roland Steinmeyer and Stephan Grüninger (eds.). Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag. ISBN 978-3-503-18784-3.
- Zabyelina, Yuliya, Nicole Kalczynski, Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez, Patty Zakaria, and Ozden Gul. 2022. Western Hemisphere Anticorruption Index Report 2022, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. https://whaci.org/assets/downloads/CNY_report.pdf.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2021. "The conundrum of corruption: Reform for social justice. Johnston, Michael and Fritzen, Scott A. Routledge, New York, New York 2021. 194 pp. $44.95 (paper)," Governance. DOI: 10.1111/gove.12653.
- Stephenson, Matthew; Gawthorpe, Steven; Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph; Hudson, Alan; Tonn, Johannes and Heywood, Paul. 2020. ACE Digital Library. Washington, D.C.: Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE).
- Gawthorpe, Steven and Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2020. Anti-corruption Keywords [Data file]. ACE Digital Library. Washington, D.C.: Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE). Retrieved from https://library.globalintegrity.org.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2020. "CHINA’S GILDED AGE: THE PARADOX OF ECONOMIC BOOM AND VAST CORRUPTION,Yuen Yuen Ang,New York, United States: Cambridge University Press. 2020. 266 pp. $39.99 (cloth)," Governance. DOI: 10.1111/gove.12560.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2020. "Editorial foreword," Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center Journal, Vol. 2020, No. 1. DOI: 10.5339/rolacc.2020.1.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2020. "Anticorrupción durante la COVID-19. Equilibrio entre la urgencia y la rendición de cuentas," in Guía de buenas prácticas en contrataciones durante el ESTADO DE EMERGENCIA, pp. 74-75, by Gestión Pública & Control. Lima: Gaceta Jurídica.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2018. "Telling corrupt actors to be less corrupt doesn’t help anyone," The FCPA Blog, August 13, 2018.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2018. "Do ethics programs create corruption?" The FCPA Blog, May 23, 2018.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. 2018. "The Quest for a Unified Theory of Corruption," The FCPA Blog, January 11, 2018.
- Pozsgai Alvarez, Joseph. 2017. "How to Think Politically About Anti-Corruption: A Crash Course," New Vision, May 17, 2017.
- Pozsgai Alvarez, Joseph. 2016. "Low-Level Corruption Tolerance: Concept and Operationalization," Panoramas, February 15, 2016.
- Panel speaker at the Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, session on "Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Artificial Intelligence Era," held in Kyoto, Japan, March 12, 2021.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. "The Abuse of Entrusted Power for Private Gain: Meaning, Nature and Theoretical Evolution." Presentation at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) held at the University of Wrocław, Poland, September 4-7, 2019.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. "Sociopolitical norms, awareness and responses to incentives." Presentation at the "4th Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Forum" held by the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine, June 13-14, 2019.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. "Population Density and Corruption Tolerance in Latin America." Presentation at the "International Workshop on Data-Intensive Urban Studies" held by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) of Kyoto University, March 2, 2019.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. "Corruption as a Process of Political and Social Cognition." Colloquium at the Center for Experimental Research in Social Sciences (CERSS) of Hokkaido University, December 20, 2018.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. "Corruption as a Process of Political and Social Cognition." Seminar at the Graduate School of International Development (GSID) of Nagoya University, December 4, 2018.
- Yusuke Murakami & Joseph Pozsgai. "Valores democráticos en el Perú" ("Democratic Values in Peru"). Presentation at the "8th International Conference of the Latin American Studies Council of Asia and Oceania (CELAO)" in Macau, November 10, 2018.
- Pozsgai-Alvarez, Joseph. "The Quest for a Unified Theory of Corruption." Presentation at the Seminar "Cross-regional Comparative Studies and Informatics in Asia Pacific Era" held by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) of Kyoto University, March 18, 2018.
- Journal of Economic Criminology (Elsevier). Editorial Board Member since September 2022.
- Japan Network of Anti-Corruption Researchers (JANAR). Founder since November 2019.
- European Consortium for Political Research’s (ECPR) (Anti-)Corruption and Integrity. Member of the Steering Committee since September 2019.
- European Consortium for Political Research’s (ECPR) Political Culture Research Network. Regular member since April 2018.
- Japan Association for Latin American Studies. Regular member since October 2014.