Asian Social Science; Vol. 10, No. 11; 2014 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 201 Reconceptualising Political Corruption in Democratising Societies Rochman Achwan 1 1 Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, Indonesia Correspondence: Rochman Achwan, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok 16424, Indonesia. E-mail: rachwan09@gmail.com Received: April 29, 2014 Accepted: May 17, 2014 Online Published: May 30, 2014 doi:10.5539/ass.v10n11p201 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n11p201 Abstract Much has been studied about political corruption and its implications for political development. Two perspectives, namely political and political economy, seem to dominate these studies. Both perspectives have provided useful analysis on the causes and impacts of political corruption, but they seem to have neglected the complex institutional contexts of the rise of political corruption in democratising societies. By employing the perspective of organisational institutionalism, this paper explores ways in which complex institutional networks play a pivotal role in bringing about political corruption. This study uses two types of qualitative approaches. The first is a literature study, surveying published academic journal articles and books that are concerned with issues of political corruption; and the second uses unpublished raw data from case studies of political corruption in Indonesia. By using Indonesia as a case in point, this paper shows that the rise and growth of political corruption lies in the complex interplay of interactions among dominant institutions and organisations, including state-owned enterprises, parliaments, and political parties. The curbing of political corruption in any democratising society will depend on the existence of a powerful agency of corruption eradication. Equipped with a powerful authority, as Indonesia has shown, such an agency is capable of bringing corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, and business people before corruption courts. In Indonesia, the Corruption Eradication Commission is a strategic agency able to transform a corrupt state into legal-rational state. Keywords: democratic transition, Indonesia, organisational institutionalism, political corruption 1. Introduction Studies on political corruption are as old as studies on the state. Political corruption is inextricably linked to state arrangements because it involves misuse of public property, which is related to power vested in the state. Different views on interactions among the state, political groups, and institutions have given birth to different perspectives of how power is abused. With the current global domination of democracy, social scientists are challenged to prove that democracy is not an ideal political system; that democracy opens up possible avenues for the emergence of a variety of types of corruption. This article seeks to offer a new perspective, that of organisational institutionalism; a perspective that better explains complex occurrences of political corruption in democratising societies. This is in contrast to the seemingly partial current conceptualisation of political corruption that focuses only on certain aspects of political institutions such as parliaments, political parties, and the state bureaucracy. The author defines political corruption as the abuse of public office for the purpose of accumulating power. This definition is used to assess how recent academic publications confuse political corruption as means of accumulation of power and as means to achieve other purposes. 2. Methodology This study uses two types of qualitative approaches, the first is a literature study, surveying published academic journal articles and books that discuss issues related to political corruption. The second uses unpublished raw data from case studies of political corruption in Indonesia, prepared by senior sociologists who were commissioned by Partnership for Governance Reform, an Indonesian non government organisation. The purpose of using these raw data is to provide insight into the institutional networks of political corruption occurring in Indonesia since this country embraced political democracy in 1998. The second part of this article focuses on developing a map of studies on political corruption, and reviews their strengths and weaknesses. The third part provides and discusses empirical data on political corruption in