A Clockwork Oligarchy

November 9, 2025 9:45 PM Subscribe

Reversing State Capture: The 15-70-15 Rule. (ungated). “Bank regulators are seldom celebrities. But Ahsan Mansur, the governor of Bangladesh’s central bank, is an exception. Since he took over in August, after an autocratic prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, was overthrown by protests, his job has been to untangle the criminal mess she left behind...The pillaging of Bangladeshi savings was a brazen example of a global scourge: state capture. This is when the powers and resources of the state are hijacked for the benefit of a few. It is a broader concept than corruption, since it includes acts that are not against the law, but should be. It can involve rewriting rules to benefit insiders, stuffing institutions with placemen, channelling favours to cronies, intimidating businesses into appeasing the powerful, and gutting checks and balances. The aim may be self-enrichment, or strengthening the captor’s grip on power, or both.”

“When reforming, remember the “15-70-15” rule. Richard Pennington, a police reformer in New Orleans, reckoned that 15% of cops were the drivers of corruption, 70% went along with it and 15% were clean. This ratio applies at many institutions, argues Professor Stone. The best approach is to sack or sideline the filthy 15%, promote the honest staff and persuade the complicit middle that norms have changed. This can be done institution by institution, allowing measurable progress, which can generate support from voters for further reforms.”

The article profiles three countries’ experiences with state capture: Bangladesh, Poland and South Africa. There is of course another country that is the elephant (figuratively and emblematically) in the room when discussing this issue.