role of education in combating corruption essay writing

Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World

How education could reduce corruption

Transnational Crime and the 21st Century: Criminal Enterprise, Corruption, and Opportunity

• By Jay Albanese
• July 9 th 2020

We live in an era of widely publicized bad behavior. It’s not clear if there’s more unethical behavior occurring now than in the past, but communications technology allows every corrupt example to be broadcast globally. Why are we not making better progress against unethical conduct and corruption in general?

Morals are the principles of good conduct, widely accepted by all. The study of morality is ethics, and unethical conduct, which underlies all corruption. Corruption undermines the rule of law, creates economic harm, violates human rights, and illicitly protects facilitators and accomplices. Both unethical and corrupt conduct are selfish or self-seeking behavior without regard for the valid claims or human rights of others.

Where do ethics come from? We learn them in the same way we learn all skills, including foreign languages, mechanics, or research methods. People often overestimate the ethicality of their own behavior , failing to recognize underlying,  self-serving biases  that promote misconduct. We see ourselves as rational, ethical, competent and objective, but lack the ability to see our  ethical blind spots  that conceal conflicts of interest and unconscious biases in decision-making. Ethical training, education, and reinforcement results in better conduct.

But learning and application of principles in practice is an incremental process, moving from smaller acts to more consistent courses of conduct. Ethics might be the most important skill of all, because it provides the path to appreciate that there is a greater purpose in life than self-interest. People are moral agents, have moral responsibilities, but many have never learned the principles for ethical decision-making.

Global interest in ethical conduct has grown dramatically during the last generation. During the 1990s, the World Bank changed course to address the “cancer of corruption.” This launched the World Bank into a new era in which addressing corruption to ensure funds were not misspent became as important as the development work itself.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1948, which now has 36 member countries, representing nearly two-thirds of gross domestic product globally. Concerned about the tax deductibility of bribes in many countries, the organization developed a convention to criminalize foreign bribery entirely, which entered into force in 1999. The organization is the first binding international convention criminalizing foreign bribery across many nations.

The United Nations Convention against Corruption entered into force in 2005, specifying multiple forms of corruption beyond just bribery, and providing a legal framework for criminalizing and countering it. The UN Convention against Corruption is the only legally binding universal anti-corruption instrument. There are now 187 state parties to the Convention, representing 97% of the UN membership.

Each of these initiatives is significant, and they require participants to enact laws and regulations, engage in enforcement actions, and obtain anti-corruption training. Unfortunately, these initiatives focus on structural reforms: laws, policies, procedures, and technical assistance, to reduce the opportunities for corrupt conduct and enforce anti-corruption provisions. Structural reforms have limitations, however. They reduce opportunities for misconduct, but do not preclude motivated actors from seeking unethical advantage. The result is better institutions, but individual decision-making remains the same.

There are signs of global movement to improve individual ethical decisions, however. The Education for Justice Initiative was developed from the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2015. The initiative highlights the importance of education in preventing crime and corruption, and promoting a culture that supports the rule of law.

One of the courses in the Education for Justice Initiative is integrity and ethics. Another is corruption. This effort builds on research documenting the effectiveness of creating principled, ethical decision makers from a young age. The courses,  available open access globally , equip participants at different education levels with skills to apply and incorporate these principles in their life and professional decision-making.

People need to be accountable even without a camera looking over their shoulder or constant police surveillance.   People must be  motivated to act ethically , and establish a moral identity, that supports conduct in the interest of others, rather than selfish or self-seeking behavior.

People need to have better moral integrity is we want to promote ethical conduct. People are under continuous pressure on many fronts: business concerns, government operations, medical access, education, among others. Ethical conduct, resistant to corrupt influences, can be found in unlikely places, but it must begin with greater individual accountability that occurs with higher ethical standards developed through teaching, training, and practice.

Personal and social happiness come from actions that benefit others, rather than exploit or ignore them. People respect other people with high moral standards. There is freedom found in not yielding to our basest desires, and in living openly and cooperatively with others rather than secretively and fraudulently.

It is time to look beyond structural and institutional reforms to reduce opportunities for corrupt conduct, and enforce anti-corruption provisions. It is time to also focus on individual moral education and training to reduce the number of motivated actors seeking unethical advantage.

Jay Albanese is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs. He has also written multiple books on crime, justice, and ethics.

Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities.

We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles.

Or subscribe to articles in the subject area by email or RSS

Related posts:

Recent Comments

There are currently no comments.

GLOBAL AFFAIRS

M. Seth (*), what are the most effective tools to fight corruption?

On the largest level, there is the creation of effective institutions, such as independent and specialized anti-corruption agencies and audit institutions on the national and international scales; secondly: the strengthening of judicial institutions, and finally: multilateral efforts such as the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

These tools can only be effective if accompanied by attitudinal and behavioral shifts. These shifts can be brought through awareness campaigns. International Anti-Corruption Day (9 December), for example, is a great opportunity to make people aware of the scourge of corruption, how deep-rooted it is, and how it upends the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

When we were creating the SDGs, many countries opposed mentioning corruption on the grounds that it would marginalize developing states. But corruption is something present in countries rich and poor. We polled almost 10 million people worldwide on their priorities, and corruption ranked the highest in these peoples’ minds, despite their government representatives’ resistance in the halls of the UNGA.

Attitudinal-behavioral shifts depend largely on education and training. Only through this can we shape competent specialists in the field while fostering the concepts of integrity and personal values to oppose corruption in all forms. In fact, education and training directly fights the scourge in peoples’ minds by changing the general attitude that corruption is too big and deep-rooted to fight.

The most effective training and education programs focus on providing a strong balance between academic and theoretical knowledge on topical issues, and core competencies in areas such as leadership and negotiation skills. To ensure the effectiveness of existing anti-corruption mechanisms through education and training, UNITAR’s Executive Diploma and a master’s program on Anti-Corruption and Diplomacy, jointly implemented with the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), provide this balance.

Dr. Stelzer (**), what are the landmark events in the history of international anti-corruption efforts?

There is a clear division between the period before and after UNCAC. UN anti-corruption action goes back to 1975, when the UNGA adopted the first resolution against corruption, targeting transnational corporations and their intermediaries. The next large steps were all regional: the Inter-American Convention against Corruption in 1996; the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 1997; and the EU’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption in 1999. These all led to the negotiation and adoption of UNTOC (UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime) in 2000.

When I was appointed Permanent Representative of Austria in 2001, the first session of the Crime Commission (Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice) that I chaired, adopted a resolution describing corruption as a structural impediment to sustainable development. This very same Crime Commission helped prepare for the negotiations of what later became the main instrument in the fight against corruption: UNCAC. With 187 parties, UNCAC allowed us to address corruption on the basis of the rule of law, changing the idea that it is too big to fight.

By 2006, the UNCAC implementation progress was still slow. I could not see this initiative, which I had negotiated and signed, wither away. To speed up the process, the head of the Anti-Corruption branch at UNODC and I decided to start training civil servants from developing nations in anti-corruption, then we turned this project into a program, and the program into an institution. Four years later, IACA was formed. IACA’s main achievement is its highly successful academic program, with over 3000 master’s alumni. Our experience has shown that the implementation of UNCAC depends on the strengthening of anti-corruption systems’ resilience by actors, who to a large degree, benefited from our academic programs.

* M. Nikhil Seth is the current Executive Director of UNITAR. ** Dr. Thomas Stelzer is Dean of the International Anti-corruption Academy.

The Promise of Higher Education pp 153–159 Cite as

Mitigating Corruption in Higher Education

• Elena Denisova-Schmidt 4  
• Open Access
• First Online: 02 September 2021

9397 Accesses

2 Citations

1 Altmetric

The lack of academic integrity, fraud, and other forms of unethical behaviour are problems that higher education faces in both developing and developed countries, at mass and elite universities, and public and private institutions. While academic misconduct is not new, massification, internationalization, privatization, digitalization, and commercialization have placed ethics higher on the agenda for many universities (Denisova-Schmidt and De Wit 2017 ; Denisova-Schmidt 2018 , 2019 ; Bretag 2020 ).

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download chapter PDF

Corruption in academia is particularly unfortunate, not only because of the high social regard that universities have traditionally enjoyed but also because students—young people in critical formative years—spend a significant amount of time within these educational institutions. How they experience corruption while enrolled might influence their personal and professional future, the future of their country, and much more.

An experiment conducted among bank employees in Switzerland suggests that the business culture of banks supports, and even promotes, dishonest behaviour. Such study outcomes strengthen the assumption that recent financial scandals were caused by a questionable business culture. The authors (Cohn et al. 2014 ) recruited 128 employees from a large international bank, representing both core business and support units, to participate in an online survey. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: one where their professional identity was stressed or another where professional identity was ignored. After the priming questions, all of the subjects anonymously performed a coin-tossing task: they were asked to take a coin, toss it ten times and report the outcomes. For each toss, they were able to win up to 20 USD, for a maximum payoff of 200 USD. All subjects were informed before each toss if “heads” or “tails” would win the cash prize, then asked to report their results. The study outcomes reinforce the assertion that this dubious business culture may have contributed to the financial scandals of the late 2000s: bank employees were shown to be substantially more dishonest in the professional identity group, which reported on average 58.2% winning coin tosses – significantly higher than both random chance (50%) and the success rate reported by the control group (51.6%). For the higher education sector, these results suggest that a similarly dubious academic culture might also be transferred into the students’ future professions. Less qualified people might be responsible for making serious decisions for which they are not properly trained, decisions that might directly or indirectly involve human lives. Indeed, one study found that students attending US medical universities with a strong gift restriction policy are more resistant to the marketing campaigns of pharmaceutical companies that they encounter later in their professional careers (King et al. 2013 ).

Ethical behaviour in higher education is a very complex issue that may be perceived differently by insiders and outsiders; it is also deeply embedded into larger institutional and cultural contexts that make the problem challenging for comparative analysis.

Cheating and other aspects of misconduct and academic fraud are manifold and widespread. Why do students cheat? Is it because their secondary school preparation was insufficient? Or are they pursuing a university degree as a credential without regard for how they obtain it? Why do faculty members and administrators ignore student misbehaviour? Are they overloaded with other duties and obligations or is teaching no longer important to academic career advancement? What are faculty members doing when they hold a part-time job outside of academia? Are they gaining current, practical experience to share with students to better orient them to the job market? In some fields, such as medicine or music, such employment might not be only an expectation, but a requirement. In other fields, such as management studies and political science, it can raise questions—are these faculty members leveraging their affiliation with a prestigious university to be considered for influential and lucrative positions in politics or industry? How will they manage the research, teaching, and service obligations they have in combination with private employment? Why do some faculty members publish in predatory journals, falsify data, employ professional ghost-writers, or steal papers submitted to them for review and publish them as their own? Plagiarism is widespread in academe at all levels. Were professors actively cheating as students and were they perhaps inadequately oriented to issues of academic integrity? Or are they just under too much pressure to publish to renew their contract or be considered for promotion?

1 Current Trends in Research on Corruption

Corruption is not a new phenomenon; the Bible, the works of Dante, and the plays of Shakespeare all discuss it. Intensive academic studies on corruption are relatively new, however and can be traced back to the early 1990s. This trend is often explained by the end of the Cold War, the rise of democracy, a free press in many countries, the influential role of international organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Corruption in centrally planned economies has been exposed, and international organizations have put integrity at the top of their agendas. Transparency International (TI), an international NGO headquartered in Berlin with chapters in more than 100 countries, along with other NGOs has led the fight against corruption globally (Tanzi 1998 ).

The main issue being raised in corruption studies is the question of why anti-corruption reforms do not work. The answer to this question is associated with three factors—the definition of corruption; the measurement of corruption; and the design and implementation of anti-corruption policies (Ledeneva et al. 2017 ).

2 Definition of Corruption

One of the first academic definitions of corruption was suggested by Brooks ( 1970 , pp. 56–64), “The intentional misperformance or neglect of a recognized duty, or the unwarranted exercise of power, with the motive of gaining some advantage more or less personal.” One of the first definitions of corruption in higher education was offered by Heyneman, “The abuse of authority for personal as well as material gain” ( 2004 , p. 637). He suggested considering professional misconduct as education corruption.

Today, scholars and practitioners working on corruption in general, and academic corruption in particular, often apply the definition suggested by Transparency International, “Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. It should be noted, however, that corruption is an umbrella term covering multiple activities such as bribery, collusion, conflict of interest, embezzlement, fraud, lobbing, nepotism, patronage, revolving door affiliations, and other activities. The broader research on corruption suggests more than fifty manifestations. Some of these are illegal, while others are not, but all of them are unethical and questionable to some extent.

Defining something seemingly as simple as “bribery” is complicated, as it is not just cash, but rather “the offering, promising, giving, accepting, or soliciting of an advantage as an inducement for an action which is illegal, unethical, or a breach of trust. Inducements can take the form of gifts, loans, fees, rewards, or other advantages such as taxes, services, donations, favours, etc.” (Global Anti-Bribery Guidance 2020 ). Not all scholars and practitioners working in this field would dare to call plagiarism or student cheating, corruption, nor would they consider universities that add a high “overhead” percentage to third-party grants or students preparing the first draft of their recommendation letter for their professors to sign to be corruption. Nevertheless, whether or not these practices represent corruption, the lack of academic integrity, academic dishonesty, cheating, professional misconduct, or other unethical behaviour, can lead to a decrease in the quality of higher education and increase public distrust in one of the most important societal institutions.

3 Measurement of Corruption

Despite the numerous barriers to researching corruption in higher education, many studies in this field have been carried out. In 2013, Gareth Sweeney, Krina Despota, and Samira Lindner edited TI’s Global Corruption Report: Education. In the nearly 500 pages of text, scholars and practitioners showed that corruption exists in academia all over the world and at all levels of education, from primary schools to universities (Sweeney et al. 2013 ). In addition to media reports, citizen reports, and studies of court records, the data sources for corruption in education include various types of surveys and experiments related to corruption and the perception of corruption. Lab, field, and natural experiments are new trends in the study of corruption in higher education. One of the advantages of these tools is that they address causality. Therefore, their outcomes might be helpful for educators, policymakers, and other practitioners.

Most scholars argue that measuring the true volume of academic corruption is impossible and impractical. Researchers working on corruption in higher education might face additional challenges, especially if they are themselves affiliated with an educational institution. How can they separate their job as faculty members from their study outcomes? What is their motivation? Are they whistle-blowers? Are they the offenders themselves, reflecting on their own experiences? In any case, researchers often have to explain their position in terms of corruption.

4 Design and Implementation of Anti-corruption Policies

There are two main models for analyzing corruption and, therefore, two main approaches to designing and implementing anti-corruption policies—the principal-agent model and the collective action model (Ledeneva et al. 2017 ).

The first approach considers the principal, who represents the public interest and controls corruption, and the agent, who might be open to corrupt transactions. For example, if a faculty member (the agent) was to demand a bribe from a student (the client), the role of a dean (the principal) would be to intervene and prevent such a transaction. This model assumes that there are any no conflicts of interest between the principal and the agent. In reality, the principal might also be corrupt or have other reasons to allow, ignore, or even support corrupt transactions between the agent and the client. Nevertheless, scholars working with this model suggest tackling the incentives along the chain and changing the organizational structure to eliminate corruption.

The second approach considers all corrupt actions in context. For example, several high-profile politicians have been accused of plagiarism in their Ph.D. dissertations or during their university years. While some politicians “only” lost their academic titles, others also lost their jobs (such as Hungarian President Pál Schmitt in 2012). Some even saw the end of their public careers (e.g. German Defense Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, in 2011 and German Education Minister, Annette Schavan, in 2013), while other politicians were caught but completely unaffected (Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006) or only slightly tainted (Former US Vice President Joe Biden in 1987). In societies where some forms of corrupt behaviour are considered the norm, many anti-corruption policies will be not effective.

Contributions to the scholarship of both approaches are crucial, but the models above do not address the scope of corrupt activity, such as problem-solving, especially in the context of weak and ineffective institutions. Looking for a third approach—what problems are solved by corrupt practices—might mitigate corruption more efficiently. The label “fake university,” for example, can be applied to very different situations. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) established the University of Farmington in Michigan as a trap for international students whom authorities believed were intending to enter the country as students only to remain in the country illegally. Another example, Central European University (CEU), a private university founded in Hungary in 1991 to support social and economic transitions in Eastern European countries and the former Soviet Union, is considered a fake university by the Viktor Orbán administration. While they are both “fake universities” in the classical meaning, the ‘remedies’, if any, to deal with the University of Farmington and the CEU might be completely different.

5 Conclusion

Many educators tend to focus on large-scale corruption. Indeed, the consequences for financial fraud during a building renovation or the purchase of new furniture are more visible and measurable than those for a plagiarized term paper. But the person in charge of procurement was once a student. He or she might be less inclined towards corruption if compromises for personal benefit had been addressed at that earlier stage and a more ethical attitude instilled. By acknowledging this problem—the lack of academic integrity among students— and allocating the necessary resources to mitigate academic misconduct involving students, universities might prevent corruption not only within their institutions but also far beyond.

Misguided silence and ignorance of the problems to maintain the reputation of the academic field, the university, or the entire country can lead to disasters such as Chernobyl (1986) or the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). Remedies for mitigating corruption should not focus on the general lack of academic integrity, but rather target specific practices to both prevent and control. Corruption in higher education might not only be the problem; it could also be the solution, and the reasons behind this should be tackled more precisely.

Corruption in higher education is a global problem. Some academic cultures are simply more researched and more open to those controversial topics than others. Some forms of corruption are more obvious and visible, even to outsiders, but others remain subtle and less visible. This, to some extent, mirrors the discussions between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un on the size of their respective nuclear buttons—the size does not matter if either of them was to use it, as world order would be destroyed. The same is true about corruption in academia—the acts might differ in size, but with equally serious consequences in all parts of the world.

IAU plays an important role in mitigating corruption: it sets the standards (cf. IAU-MCO Guidelines for an Institutional Code of Ethics in Higher Education), provides a platform for expert discussions (cf. IAU HORIZONS, 22(1), 2017), and maintains the IAU World Higher Education Database (WHED) with comprehensive and reliable information about higher education systems and institutions worldwide—a crucial service in this era of “fake news”.

Bretag, T. (Ed.) (2020). A Research Agenda for Academic Integrity, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Google Scholar  

Brooks, R. C. (1970). The nature of political corruption. In A. J. Heidenheimer (Ed.) Political corruption: Readings in comparative analysis (pp. 56–64). London: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Cohn, A., Fehr, E., & Maréchal, A. M. (2014). Business culture and dishonesty in the banking Industry. Nature, 516, 86–89.

Article   Google Scholar  

Denisova-Schmidt, E. (Ed.). (2020). Corruption in higher education: global challenges and responses . Leiden: Brill/Sense.

Denisova-Schmidt, E. (2019). Corruption in higher education. In Teixeira, P. N., & Shin, J.-C. (Eds.). Encyclopedia of international higher education systems and institutions . Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Denisova-Schmidt, E. (2018). Corruption, the lack of academic integrity and other ethical issues in higher education: What can be done within the Bologna process? In A. Curaj, L. Deca, & R. Pricopie. (Eds.). European higher education area: the impact of past and future policies (pp. 61–75). Chem: Springer.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Denisova-Schmidt, E., & De Wit, H. (2017). The global challenge of corruption in higher education. IAU Horizons, 22 (1), 28–29.

Global Anti-Bribery Guidance (2020). What is bribery? Transparency International. Retrieved from: https://www.antibriberyguidance.org/guidance/5-what-bribery/guidance (27.08.2020).

Heyneman, S. (2004). Education and corruption. International Journal of Educational Development, 24, 637–648.

King, M., Essick, C., Bearman, P., & Ross, J. S. (2013). Medical school gift restriction policies and physician prescribing of newly marketed psychotropic medications: Difference-in-differences analysis. BMJ, 346 , 1–9.

Ledeneva, A., Bratu, R., & Köker, P. (2017). Corruption studies for the twenty-first century: Paradigm shifts and innovative approaches. Slavonic and East European Review, 95 (1), 1–20.

Sweeney, G., Despota, K.,& Lindner, S . (Eds.) (2013). Global corruption report: Education. Transparency International . London and New York: Routledge.

Tanzi, V. (1998, December 4). Corruption around the world. IMF Staff Papers, 45.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This essay is a revised version of Denisova-Schmidt ( 2020 ). Introduction in ‘ Corruption in higher education: global challenges and responses. Leiden: Brill/Sense. Revised with permission from the copyright holder.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Elena Denisova-Schmidt

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elena Denisova-Schmidt .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

International Association of Universities, Paris, France

Hilligje van't Land

Andreas Corcoran

National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania

Diana-Camelia Iancu

Rights and permissions

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter.

Denisova-Schmidt, E. (2021). Mitigating Corruption in Higher Education. In: van't Land, H., Corcoran, A., Iancu, DC. (eds) The Promise of Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67245-4_24

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67245-4_24

Published : 02 September 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-67244-7

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-67245-4

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• IIEP Buenos Aires

• A global institute
• Governing Board
• Expert directory
• 60th anniversary
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Latest news
• Upcoming events
• PlanED: The IIEP podcast
• Partnering with IIEP
• Career opportunities
• 11th Medium-Term Strategy
• Planning and management to improve learning
• Inclusion in education
• Using digital tools to promote transparency and accountability
• Ethics and corruption in education
• Digital technology to transform education
• Crisis-sensitive educational planning
• Rethinking national school calendars for climate-resilient learning
• Skills for the future
• Interactive map
• Foundations of education sector planning programmes
• Online specialized courses
• Customized, on-demand training
• Training in Buenos Aires
• Training in Dakar
• Preparation of strategic plans
• Sector diagnosis
• Costs and financing of education
• Tools for planning
• Crisis-sensitive education planning
• Supporting training centres
• Support for basic education quality management
• Gender at the Centre
• Teacher careers
• Geospatial data
• Cities and Education 2030
• Learning assessment data
• Governance and quality assurance
• School grants
• Early childhood education
• Flexible learning pathways in higher education
• Instructional leaders
• Planning for teachers in times of crisis and displacement
• Planning to fulfil the right to education
• Thematic resource portals
• Policy Fora
• Network of Education Policy Specialists in Latin America
• Publications
• Briefs, Papers, Tools
• Search the collection
• Visitors information
• Planipolis (Education plans and policies)
• IIEP Learning Portal
• Ethics and corruption ETICO Platform
• PEFOP (Vocational Training in Africa)
• SITEAL (Latin America)
• Policy toolbox
• Education for safety, resilience and social cohesion
• Health and Education Resource Centre
• Interactive Map
• Search deploy

Overcoming corruption and academic fraud in higher education

  by muriel poisson, iiep-unesco.

Fighting corruption in higher education has taken on new urgency – for never before has the crucial role of higher education in building sustainable, prosperous societies been so clear.

Investigations into entrance exam fraud in Colombia, former high-level government officials forced to step down in Japan after revelations that they illegally obtained post-retirement university posts, a crackdown on widespread cheating in Kenya, charges brought against a Pakistani company accused of defrauding tens of thousands of students in the US by selling them below-standard coursework, plans to name and shame academic qualification fraudsters in South Africa, and a national PhD registry set up in Malaysia to curb the production and usage of fraudulent academic titles by individuals and institutions – this range of examples illustrate the magnitude of corruption and fraudulent practices in higher education worldwide, as well as the various attempts to clean up the sector.

Creating incentives to fight corruption and academic fraud is not an easy task, particularly in a context where the increased autonomy given to universities has not always been counterbalanced by appropriate accountability mechanisms; and where capacities to regulate and control corruption and fraud also remain limited. 

Nevertheless, the pressing need to improve higher education integrity is likely to grow over the coming years. Stakeholders are better positioned today to measure the harmful effects of loss of resources and credibility caused by fraudulent practices. Those with vested interests include funders concerned with the efficient use of shrinking resources, higher education institutions (HEIs) needing to maintain trust in the diplomas that they deliver, employers who have to rely on the validity of higher education credentials, and individuals who can be easily tarnished by allegations of corruption or fraud that can spread more and more easily via the Internet

Examples of effective actions to prevent corruption and enhance integrity in higher education were recently outlined by the Advisory Statement published by IIEP and CHEA*. It includes, but is not limited to, imposing sanctions on government officials and HEI staff who present phony qualifications; putting appeals processes in place for academic and administrative decisions; developing international security standards for documents relating to higher education credentials; excluding individuals in conflict of interest as members of quality assurance panels; monitoring the behavior of recruitment agents for observance of HEI’s requirements and the law; including higher education in consumer protection legislation on marketing and advertising; and passing legislation to protect whistle-blowers. 

Testimonies from countries such as Morocco, Lithuania, or the UK that have tested some of these approaches are featured on IIEP’s ETICO Platform of resources.  To move ahead, further reflection and exchange is needed on how integrity indicators can be included in traditional diagnoses of the higher education sector; on how governments and HEIs can design charts of ethics and codes of conduct and adapt the norms and procedures that they use to manage the sector; on how to review quality assurance standards and mechanisms to ensure that they better integrate integrity concerns; and finally on how to encourage stronger public access to information. This is a must to enable the entire higher education community to take further action.

* IIEP; CHEA/CIQG. 2016. Advisory Statement for Effective International Practice. Combatting Corruption and Enhancing Integrity: A Contemporary Challenge for the Quality and Credibility of Higher Education. 

Visit the ETICO Platform of resources on ethics and corruption in education.

Access all past issues of our newsletter here .

• The IIEP Letter : The changing role of higher education

• Privacy Notice

Reflecting on the role of universities in the fight against corruption

RAUSP Management Journal

ISSN : 2531-0488

Article publication date: 20 December 2018

Issue publication date: 20 February 2019

Corruption continues to ravage societies around the world. The fight against corruption can be fruitful only if approached from multiple standpoints. Thus, corruption must also be approached from an academic and educational perspective. The purpose of this paper is to provide a good practice example of how universities and business schools can take actions to align themselves with the international sustainability and anticorruption agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

The six principles of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) provide a framework for higher education institutions to address corruption-related issues. This paper presents the case story of the Swiss-based University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur, which developed an academic working agenda on corruption-related topics based on the principles of the PRME.

The case story shares the actions that HTW Chur has taken and the benefits that have resulted from the university’s work. The findings show that to address corruption-related issues, scholars from the university took actions related to four principles in the PRME: method, research, partnership and dialogue. Furthermore, the results indicate that in addition to the university itself, public and private institutions have also profited from the actions taken.

Research limitations/implications

This paper is founded on a single case story; thus, the usual limitations of this research design apply.

Practical implications

It becomes apparent that the needs of the private sector in the fight against corruption could be addressed by engaging in and strengthening partnerships with universities. Thus, it seems beneficial to develop guidelines and standards to facilitate collaborations and dialogue in a participatory and transparent way.

Originality/value

The paper provides a good practice example of how universities can take actions to align themselves with the international sustainability and anticorruption agenda.

• Universities
• United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME)

Hauser, C. (2019), "Reflecting on the role of universities in the fight against corruption", RAUSP Management Journal , Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 4-13. https://doi.org/10.1108/RAUSP-09-2018-0080

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Christian Hauser.

Published in RAUSP Management Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Corruption is a complex, multilayered phenomenon. Thus, it is hardly surprising that no universal consensus has yet been reached on how to define it ( Gordon and Miyake, 2001 ). Critical objections to a globally uniform definition of the term indicate that corruption is a phenomenon that differs in appearance, extent and moral acceptance from culture to culture. Exponents of this view emphasize that the current understanding of corruption is strongly influenced by Western culture and worldview ( Velasquez, 2004 ; Nuijten and Anders, 2007 ). To counter this objection, efforts are being made to achieve a more balanced understanding of this global phenomenon ( UNDP, 2008 ). Transparency International (2008) defines corruption generally as the abuse of entrusted power for undue private gain. In this context, actions regarded as corrupt are linked to the view on what power is, where power comes from, and what should be done with it ( Collins et al. , 2009 ). Since power is typically associated with the governing of a state, corruption is primarily regarded as a concept related to public policy. In this context, two levels of corrupt behavior are often distinguished: grand corruption, otherwise known as political corruption and petty corruption. Grand corruption is associated with illicit behavior involving the application of undue political influence at high levels of government. This form of corruption typically involves significant monetary and/or nonmonetary values and is associated with far-reaching consequences for substantial parts of or the entire society. Usually, these grand monetary and/or nonmonetary advantages are offered to manipulate public policies and institutions as well as political processes ( Pacini et al. , 2002 ). Conversely, petty corruption relates to illicit behavior in everyday life, often lying at the interface between lower- to middle-level government bodies and private actors ( UNDP, 2008 ; Elliott, 1997 ). Monetary and/or nonmonetary values are comparatively low and primarily affect the individual parties involved. However, critics of this distinction emphasize that in practice, there is no clear distinction between the two levels. Rather, the transitions are fluid, and petty corruption also has considerable effects on society, as it prevents effective and efficient administrative action and undermines the legitimacy of public institutions.

In addition to categorization according to different levels at which corruption occurs, a distinction is made between different types of corrupt behavior, including bribery, illegal gratuities, economic extortion and conflicts of interest ( Wells, 2017 ). Bribery occurs when a monetary and/or nonmonetary advantage is granted, agreed or even offered in exchange for improperly influencing a discretionary decision ( Pacini et al. , 2002 ; Hauser and Hogenacker, 2014 ). By contrast, illegal gratuities are monetary and/or nonmonetary advantages for a discretionary decision that has already been made. Illegal gratuities are retrospective “rewards” that can nonetheless easily influence future decisions ( Hauser, 2018 ). Economic extortion is another form of corruption whereby monetary and/or nonmonetary advantages are unjustly acquired through the use of threatened or actual force, instigating violence or fear in the extorted party ( Neumann and Elsenbroich, 2017 ). Conflict of interest is another type of corrupt behavior, and it exists when a decision-maker has an undisclosed economic or personal interest in a particular decision, which could have negative consequences for the party who entrusted the decision-maker with the discretionary decision power ( Wells, 2017 ). The aforementioned corrupt practices indicate that corruption does not necessarily always involve public officials but can also occur in business transactions that exclusively involve private sector actors.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), corruption continues to be a widespread global phenomenon. Corruption seems to be most prominent in Latin America, Africa, and Asia; however, it can be found, to varying extents, in all countries around the globe. Worryingly, over two-thirds of the world’s countries fall below the midpoint of the CPI, and the global average, as of 2017, is 43. Moreover, there has been a global trend of more countries declining, in other words, being perceived as becoming more corrupt, rather than improving ( Transparency International, 2018a ).

With an above-average level of corruption according to the CPI, it is apparent that Latin America and the Caribbean are two regions with high perceived levels of corruption ( Transparency International, 2018a ). While the CPI measures perceptions of corruption in a country, Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) reflects public opinion. The GCB indicates that in 2017, almost two-thirds of people living in Latin America and the Caribbean believed that there was a rise in corruption levels from the previous year, and almost half thought that most or all politicians and members of the police force are corrupt. Worryingly, more than half of the respondents said that their governments are doing poorly in the fight against corruption, whereas only one-third said that their government is doing well. Furthermore, few people who are subject to corruption are willing to report the relevant acts, and those who do often suffer from retaliation. Despite these issues, 70 per cent of residents believe that ordinary people could together make a difference in the fight against corruption and would feel empowered to do so ( Pring, 2017 ).

Looking more regionally, although the CPI of Brazil is higher than that of many other Latin American countries, implying that there is a lower perceived level of corruption in Brazil, corruption is nonetheless still highly prevalent. The most current GCB relating specifically to Brazil indicates that more than two-thirds of Brazilian residents feel that corruption is a serious issue in the public sector ( Transparency International, 2013 ). Likewise, Brazil has been, and still is, the focus of one of the world’s largest corruption scandals to date.

Operation “Lava Jato” (“Car Wash”) is an ongoing investigation led by the Brazilian Federal Police that began in March 2014. Originally a money laundering probe, the investigation expanded to uncover a grand corruption scandal with severe implications for multiple Latin American countries and other countries in Africa and potentially Europe ( BBC, 2017 ). At the center of the scandal and the ongoing trials, the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht has admitted to paying approximately USD 785 million in bribes to public officials, with over USD 26 million further alleged payments over a 30-year period ( BBC, 2017 ). Odebrecht, which had its own specialized department for bribery, paid bribes and provided undue campaign funding to high-ranking politicians and public officials to pass favorable legislation and secure major work contracts, including contracts linked to construction work for the 2014 Soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics ( BBC, 2017 ; Chade, 2017 ). Seventy-seven Odebrecht executives have struck plea deals, further implicating high-ranking politicians and public officials in Latin American countries, leading to political unrest and uncertainty throughout Latin America ( The Business Times, 2018 ). Business leaders, multinational enterprises (MNEs) and leading politicians have been caught up in the allegations, which range from bribery and money laundering to attempting to distort the democratic process, with more than 150 people arrested, prosecuted or facing criminal proceedings ( Aljazeera, 2018 ).

Corruption scandals such as the one involving Odebrecht have a wide array of implications for the economy and society as a whole. Corruption is associated with major societal costs since illicit behavior endangers political stability, undermines democratic values, provides fertile ground for organized crime, and fosters a general loss of confidence in public institutions ( Pereira Mendes, 2015 ; Frei and Muethel, 2017 ; Pacini et al. , 2002 ). In addition, bribery and corruption undermine the market mechanism leading to distorted competition not only in the construction industry but also in other industries. Furthermore, bribery and corruption undercut transparency and disincentivize private investment, thus hampering economic growth ( Frei and Muethel, 2017 ; Mauro, 1995 ; Osuji, 2011 ; Pacini et al. , 2002 ) and leading to further social costs, including an increase in poverty, distorted access to public services and a decrease in public health ( Frei and Muethel, 2017 ).

The Operation Car Wash probe received considerable support from the Brazilian public in the hope that it would create transparency within the country and pave the way for stronger accountability and public governance in the coming years ( Lopez and Miroff, 2017 ). However, the fact that close to one-third of current government ministers are facing investigations for crimes linked to the Odebrecht scandal ( BBC, 2017 ), in combination with political pardons and clemency for public officials who have been implicated in the recent scandals, has led to an even greater lack of faith in the political system among Brazilians ( Transparency International, 2018b ). The insecurity, economic turmoil and lack of confidence in the government has led the public to call for a return to a military regime, with approximately one-third of the population in favor of military intervention ( Woody, 2017 ). Against this backdrop, it hardly came as a surprise that his promise to end endemic corruption was one of the main reasons why Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who praises the country’s former military dictatorship, was elected as the 38th president of Brazil ( Meredith, 2018 ).

Together with social and economic costs at the macro level, research indicates that corruption entails substantial costs for companies as well. Companies operating in areas where corruption is prevalent, regardless of their involvement in corrupt acts, suffer from higher direct costs. Wu (2009) estimates that operating in highly corrupt environments raises the direct cost of doing business by approximately 5 per cent. Furthermore, companies that have been directly involved in corruption face penalties and sanctions of 100 to 200 per cent of the initial sales revenue earned from corrupt transactions ( Ambler, 2014 ; Frei and Muethel, 2017 ). Moreover, the extant literature suggests that companies that have previously been involved in corrupt acts are more likely to be subject to economic extortion ( Block et al. , 1982 ). For instance, if a company previously paid bribes, there is an increased likelihood that it will receive pressure from corrupt public officials to pay more and larger bribes in the future, thus enduring long-term bribe payment obligations. Furthermore, companies involved in corrupt activities face high indirect costs in terms of reduced trust in corporate governance, unethical employee behavior, distorted quality of internal processes and negative legitimacy spillovers when operating abroad ( Frei and Muethel, 2017 ).

The high social and economic costs associated with corruption have led to an increasing demand from civil society to fight and ultimately eliminate corruption. Several international conventions, including the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, the OAS Inter American Convention Against Corruption and the United Nation Convention Against Corruption, illustrate the current efforts to combat corruption on an international scale. The conventions play a key role in the fight against corruption by creating an international framework for how to tackle corruption worldwide, including obligations for governments to criminalize corrupt behavior, extend and tighten existing criminal laws, foster domestic prevention measures and cooperate internationally with other countries ( Argandoña, 2007 ; OECD, 2018 ; UNDOC, 2018 ).

The fight against corruption can be fruitful only if approached from multiple standpoints. Aside from developing laws and regulations and other formal institutions, corruption must also be approached from an academic and educational perspective. One first step that universities and business schools can take to align themselves with the international sustainability and anticorruption agenda is by becoming a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). The six principles of the initiative address the responsibilities of higher education institutions in preparing current and future business professionals for the challenge of doing business in a sustainable and responsible way ( Godemann et al. , 2014 ).

The following paragraphs describe the case story of the Swiss-based University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur, which developed an academic working agenda on corruption-related topics based on the principles of the PRME. The case story shares the actions that the university has taken and the benefits that have resulted from the university’s work.

Founded in 1963, HTW Chur is an entrepreneurial and state-of-the-art institution for higher education. Approximately 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students are currently enrolled in 15 different programs. With the aid of lecturers with extensive experience in their field, the university is committed to combining study and applied research to support students in becoming responsible individuals with a clear ethical business base that they can carry with them on their career paths. In 2009, HTW Chur became the first public university in Switzerland to be a signatory of the PRME. As a founding member of the PRME Champions leadership group, the university has vowed to embrace the challenge of advocating education and applied research in the area of sustainable development. One area in which the university is an internationally recognized contributor to the field is its pioneering work in combatting corruption. This effort relates to Principle 10 of the UN Global Compact, “Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery” and Target 16.5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, “Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms”.

As a university of applied sciences, HTW Chur is distinguished by its practical approach to research. To address the challenge of corruption, scholars from the university took actions related to four principles in the PRME: method, research, partnership and dialogue.

Following Principle 4 of the PRME, scholars at HTW Chur engage in empirical and conceptual research to advance the understanding of corruption and foster the possibilities to fight it. To accomplish this goal, multiple yet interconnected interdisciplinary research projects have been conducted at HTW Chur.

Because of the scope and extensive media coverage of corruption scandals involving MNEs such as Siemens and Odebrecht, research efforts related to anticorruption tend to focus more on MNEs rather than on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To learn more about how SMEs are affected by corruption, a study was conducted in which more than 500 internationally active Swiss enterprises were surveyed. The findings of this study highlighted two important issues. On the one hand, the survey showed that corruption is a critical issue for SMEs when operating abroad ( Hauser and Kronthaler, 2013 ). On the other hand, the findings clearly indicated that internationally active companies do not anticipate the risk for potentially being confronted with corruption when operating in foreign countries where the level of corruption is perceived to be high. In contrast, it seems that firms tend to follow a reactive approach to the management of corruption risks and implement measures against corruption only if they have actually been confronted with the issue ( Hauser and Hogenacker, 2014 ). Furthermore, internal control measures were analyzed that SMEs can use to reduce corruption risks in their business affairs. One key parameter identified as an important measure of corruption prevention was “tone from the top”, whereby it is imperative that senior managers convey to staff that corruption is not tolerated at any level, even if that means sacrificing business goals ( Becker et al. , 2012 ).

Another control measure was identified as being effective is training ( Hauser, 2018 ), which led to the development of the “HONEST” project. The objective of “HONEST” was to develop an integrated training tool with the intent of reducing the existing lack of awareness and knowledge of corruption among current and future business professionals ( Becker et al. , 2013 ). The core of the training program is a computer-based simulation. With the help of the simulation, it is possible to raise the awareness of professionals by confronting them with dilemma situations involving corrupt behavior in a sheltered environment and providing instruction on how to act with integrity in such situations ( Hauser and Nieffer, 2018 ).

In two further research projects, scholars at HTW Chur investigated the use of whistle-blowing reporting systems first in Swiss media companies ( Dahinden et al. , 2016 ) and second in the private sector ( Blumer and Hauser, 2018 ). Whistle blowers are informants who give information about a misdemeanor or malpractice occurring within their organization to an internal reporting system or the media. The findings show that only a minority of Swiss companies have an internal reporting system through which whistle blowers can anonymously report breaches of the code of conduct. This finding implies that companies should create more spaces where employees can speak up without the fear of being penalized.

The examples mentioned show that HTW Chur has developed a clear research focus on the issue of corruption prevention, investigating it from interdisciplinary perspectives. Examining the challenge from multiple angles allows the construction of an ever-expanding knowledge base and understanding regarding corruption and corruption prevention. This knowledge base grants the ability to support the university’s partners and other organizations in their efforts to fight corruption in a way that is best suited to their individual needs.

Partnership

Following Principle 5 of the PRME, HTW Chur engages in partnerships with actors from the public and private sectors and academia to strengthen and unite in the fight against corruption. As a university of applied sciences, HTW Chur actively searches for partners that can help the university not only work on issues from a theoretical perspective but also develop scientifically sound practical solutions. Partnerships are essential because they help to staunchly focus academic work on the needs of business practices in both the public and private sectors. These partnerships are seen as one of the core strengths and an integral part of HTW Chur’s organizational DNA.

In this context, the university has been collaborating in formal agreements with multiple internationally established companies. These companies include Credit Suisse, Nestlé, Roche, Switzerland Global Enterprises, the Swiss subsidiaries of Siemens and TATA Interactive Systems, as well as with many Swiss SMEs. Working with such renowned companies helps the university establish a distinguished reputation and adds credibility to its work. The collective actions involving the academic and private sector have led to the creation of innovative solutions to raising awareness of corruption and corruption prevention.

Additionally, HTW Chur has established partnerships with other PRME signatory universities to jointly develop the “PRME Anti-Corruption Toolkit”. This action pertains to Principle 3 of the PRME, as the toolkit provides guidelines for an anticorruption curriculum that can be taught in business schools and universities globally. At HTW Chur, lecturers base their teachings on the recommendations derived from the toolkit, helping to educate current and future business professionals on the issue of anticorruption in a timely and responsive manner. Addressing this sensitive issue at an early stage in students’ careers makes graduates from HTW Chur attractive to future employers.

Following Principle 6 of the PRME, dialogue has been a vital instrument in achieving what HTW Chur has thus far accomplished in the field of anticorruption. The university embraces the chance to incorporate its scholars’ knowledge with that of others and learn from collective experiences. One way that HTW Chur accomplishes this goal is through organizing and participating in events with institutions in the public and private sectors, including the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), chambers of commerce, trade associations, and the UN Global Compact local networks. During these dialogue events, scholars have the opportunity to develop knowledge through giving and listening to speeches in a reciprocal manner. In past events, scholars from HTW Chur presented the results of their various research projects, enabling their audience to gain an understanding of and appreciation for the contributions of HTW Chur to anticorruption efforts. Likewise, the academics learn from others’ experiences through listening to talks by other institutions. In this mutual learning process, all parties benefit from the shared experience and information.

For the most part, the benefits of these events pertain to raising awareness of corruption. For many SMEs, dialogue in these situations acts as the first introduction to the subject of corruption. Dialogue is a straightforward way that SMEs can inform themselves for the first time about corruption risks and what they can do in everyday business activities to fight those risks. These events also act as a networking tool, providing a foundation for obtaining assistance from and sharing knowledge with others in day-to-day business life.

Furthermore, scholars from HTW Chur are part of several expert roundtables and working groups on anticorruption. Together with the other members of these roundtables, these scholars work towards the common goal of sharing information and best practices on how to combat corruption. The knowledge shared in these roundtable discussions is paramount to applied research and gives practical relevance to committed, application-oriented academic work.

The research projects, method development, partnerships and dialogues in the field of anticorruption are valuable contributors to gaining momentum for implementing the PRME successfully at HTW Chur. The actions taken have become an integral part of the university, leading to the HTW University Board creating the first PRME Business Integrity Action Centre in Europe in 2016. The purpose of the center is to create a framework with regard to all activities undertaken in the field of anticorruption and integrity at the university. The activities in the PRME framework have created a structure to frame the university’s activities with regard to anticorruption. The framework has helped convey the message that HTW Chur is a top-level responsible institution for higher education and granted credibility to the university’s work. Furthermore, the PRME community has helped HTW Chur learn from international experience and international best practice sharing in the field of anticorruption.

In addition to the university, public and private institutions have also profited from the actions taken. Researchers have delivered speeches, trainings and workshops to several hundred entrepreneurs and business professionals from various organizations, including SMEs, large corporations and governmental departments in and outside Switzerland. By promoting dialogue between professionals, the university creates a safe environment for them to speak up and discuss any problems they may have related to corruption. HTW Chur realized that it is important for business professionals to become aware that they are not alone in facing corruption problems. It is only when firms realize that they are not alone that they can unite and take collective actions to fight corruption. The exemplary feedback that the university’s actions have received proves that HTW Chur has succeeded in its mission of raising awareness of corruption within the business community and public sector.

The aforementioned case story of HTW Chur paves the way for recommendations for future work at universities and business schools regarding anticorruption and integrity in the framework of the PRME. First, it is apparent that establishing anticorruption training and resource centers in more countries would be beneficial globally because they would foster knowledge transfer between academic and private sector institutions, focusing attention on SMEs. Currently, within the PRME community, the only existing centers accessible to SMEs outside Switzerland are located in Argentina and South Africa. Lacking the necessary resources to develop anticorruption training for their employees, SMEs are often vulnerable to corruption and hence tend to accept the status quo. SMEs are thus in urgent need of practical anticorruption training. To ensure sustainable growth and work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, universities and business schools can assist the SME sector by providing anticorruption trainings for local SMEs. Thus, anticorruption training and resource centers should positively improve the capability of SMEs to fight corruption through targeted training, mentoring and the sharing of good practices.

Second, it is apparent that the needs of the private sector in the fight against corruption could be addressed by engaging in and strengthening partnerships with universities and business schools. Partnerships between the academic and private sector can provide innovative solutions that are both theoretically and practically sound. To facilitate partnerships between universities and companies, it seems beneficial to develop a guideline to facilitate collaborations and dialogue in a participatory and transparent way. The guideline should describe and set standards for how to initiate and promote multistakeholder partnerships between academic and private sector institutions. The aim of these partnerships is to mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources to support the anticorruption agenda in the involved countries. The guideline should describe good practice examples and approaches, as well as challenges and barriers to anticorruption-related partnerships between academia and the private sector. Thus, universities and business schools can base their partnerships with the private sector on recommendations derived from the guideline.

Ultimately, both the guideline and the training and resource centers should foster changes in the behavior and attitudes of current and future business professionals, resulting in a fundamental shift in operations when acting in environments in which the level of corruption is perceived to be high.

Aljazeera ( 2018 ), “ Brazil: the car wash scandal ”, available at: www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2018/03/brazil-car-wash-scandal-180307105602756.html

Ambler , L. ( 2014 ), Presentation of findings of the OECD Foreign Bribery Report , available at: www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/OECD-FBR-Launch-Ambler.pdf

Argandoña , A. ( 2007 ), “ The United Nations convention against corruption and its impact on international companies ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Advance online publication , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9524-z

BBC ( 2017 ), “ Odebrecht case: politicians worldwide suspected in bribery scandal ”, BBC News Online , available at: www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41109132

Becker , K. , Hauser , C. and Kronthaler , F. ( 2012 ), “ Auslandskorruption bei Schweizer Unternehmen ”, Die Volkswirtschaft , Vol. 85 No. 10 , pp. 63 - 66 .

Becker , K. , Hauser , C. and Kronthaler , F. ( 2013 ), “ Fostering management education to deter corruption: what do students know about corruption and its legal consequences? ”, Crime, Law and Social Change , Vol. 60 No. 2 , pp. 227 - 240 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-013-9448-8

Block , W. , Kinsella , N.S. and Hoppe , H.-H. ( 1982 ), “ The second paradox of blackmail ”, Business Ethics Quarterly , Vol. 10 No. 3 , pp. 593 - 622 , available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3857894

Blumer , H. and Hauser , C. ( 2018 ), “ Unternehmen profitieren von Whistleblowern ”, Die Volkswirtschaft , Vol. 91 No. 4 , pp. 45 - 48 .

Chade , J. ( 2017 ), “ Stadium deals, corruption and bribery: the questions at the heart of Brazil’s Olympic and world cup ‘miracle’ ”, The Guardian , available at: www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/23/brazil-olympic-world-cup-corruption-bribery

Collins , J.D. , Uhlenbruck , K. and Rodriguez , P. ( 2009 ), “ Why firms engage in corruption: a top management perspective ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 87 No. 1 , pp. 89 - 108 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9872-3

Dahinden , U. , Francolino , V. , Hauser , C. and Nieffer , R. ( 2016 ), Whistleblower und Medien in der Schweiz – Situationsanalyse und Empfehlungen für die Zukunft , HTW Chur Verlag , Chur .

Elliott , K.A. ( 1997 ), “ Corruption as an international policy problem: overview and recommendations ”, Elliott , K.A. (Ed.), Corruption and the Global Economy , Institute for International Economics , Washington, DC , pp. 175 - 233 , available at: https://piie.com/publications/chapters_preview/12/10ie2334.pdf

Frei , C. and Muethel , M. ( 2017 ), “ Antecedents and consequences of MNE bribery: a multilevel review ”, Journal of Management Inquiry , Vol. 26 No. 4 , pp. 418 - 432 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492617704305

Godemann , J. , Haertle , J. , Herzig , C. and Moon , J. ( 2014 ), “ United nations supported principles for responsible management education: purpose, progress and prospects ”, Journal of Cleaner Production , Vol. 62 , pp. 16 - 23 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.07.033

Gordon , K. and Miyake , M. ( 2001 ), “ Business approaches to combating bribery: a study of codes of conduct ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 34 Nos 3/4 , pp. 161 - 173 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012517622479

Hauser , C. ( 2018 ), “ Fighting against corruption: does anti-corruption training make any difference? ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Advance online publication , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3808-3

Hauser , C. and Hogenacker , J. ( 2014 ), “ Do firms proactively take measures to prevent corruption in their international operations? ”, European Management Review , Vol. 11 Nos 3/4 , pp. 223 - 237 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12035

Hauser , C. and Kronthaler , F. ( 2013 ), “ Neue Märkte, neue Risiken: Empirische Evidenz zum Korruptionsrisiko für den international aktiven Mittelstand ”, Zeitschrift Für Betriebswirtschaft , Vol. 83 No. SI 4 , pp. 37 - 60 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-04092-5_3

Hauser , C. and Nieffer , R. ( 2018 ), “ Korruptionsprävention mittels eines computerbasierten Planspiels ”, in Wolf , S. and Graeff , P. (Eds), Korruptionsbekämpfung vermitteln , Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden , Wiesbaden , pp. 235 - 257 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-19016-3_13

Lopez , M. and Miroff , N. ( 2017 ), “ A corruption scandal wrecked Brazil’s economy: now, workers face the consequences ”, Washington Post , available at: www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-corruption-scandal-wrecked-brazils-economy-now-workers-face-the-consequences/2017/06/16/a2be0faa-505b-11e7-b74e-0d2785d3083d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4c2f9f94f1a2

Mauro , P. ( 1995 ), “ Corruption and growth ”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics , Vol. 110 No. 3 , pp. 681 - 712 , available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/2946696

Meredith , S. ( 2018 ), “ Who is the ‘Trump of the Tropics?’: Brazil’s divisive new president, Jair Bolsonaro – in his own words ”, CNBC , Business Insider , available at: www.cnbc.com/2018/10/29/brazil-election-jair-bolsonaros-most-controversial-quotes.html

Neumann , M. and Elsenbroich , C. ( 2017 ), “ Introduction: the societal dimensions of organized crime ”, Trends in Organized Crime , Vol. 20 Nos 1/2 , pp. 1 - 15 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-016-9294-z

Nuijten , M. and Anders , G. ( 2007 ), Corruption and the Secret of Law: A Legal Anthropological Perspective , Ashgate Publishing , Aldershot .

OECD ( 2018 ), “ International conventions – OECD ”, available at: www.oecd.org/cleangovbiz/internationalconventions.htm

Osuji , O. ( 2011 ), “ Fluidity of regulation-CSR nexus: the multinational corporate corruption example ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 103 No. 1 , pp. 31 - 57 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0840-y

Pacini , C. , Swingen , J.A. and Rogers , H. ( 2002 ), “ The role of the OECD and EU cenventions in combating bribery of foreign public officials ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 37 No. 4 , pp. 385 - 405 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015235806969

Pereira Mendes , M. ( 2015 ), “ Political corruption and its effects on the government’s ability to provide essential public goods in Brazil ”, available at: http://casamericalatina.pt/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Brazil-Corruption-Paper-Dec-15.pdf

Pring , C. ( 2017 ), People and Corruption: Latin America and the Caribbean. Global Corruption Barometer , Transparency International , Berlin .

The Business Times ( 2018 ), “ Odebrecht scandal claims highest-ranking politician ”, The Business Times , available at: www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/odebrecht-scandal-claims-highest-ranking-politician

Transparency International ( 2008 ), Global Corruption Report: Corruption in the Water Sector , Transparency International , New York, NY .

Transparency International ( 2013 ), “ Global corruption barometer 2013 – national results ”, available at: www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country?country=brazil

Transparency International ( 2018a ), “ Corruption perceptions index 2017 – transparency international ”, available at: www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017

Transparency International ( 2018b ), “ Pardon me? Presidential clemency and impunity for grand corruption? ”, available at: www.transparency.org/news/feature/pardon_me_presidential_clemency_and_impunity_for_grand_corruption

UNDOC ( 2018 ), “ United Nations convention against corruption ”, available at: www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption/uncac.html

UNDP ( 2008 ), A Users’ Guide to Measuring Corruption , United Nations Development Programme , Oslo .

Velasquez , M. ( 2004 ), “ Is corruption always corrupt ?”, in Brenkert , G.G. (Ed.), Corporate Integrity and Accountability , SAGE Publications , Thousand Oaks, CA .

Wells , J.T. ( 2017 ), Corporate Fraud Handbook: Prevention and Detection , 5th ed., John Wiley and Sons , Hoboken, NJ .

Woody , C. ( 2017 ), “ Brazil is struggling with scandals and crises, and people there may look to the military for a fix ”, Business Insider , available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/brazil-facing-scandal-and-crises-and-military-may-get-involved-2017-9?r=US&IR=T

Wu , X. ( 2009 ), “ Determinants of bribery in Asian firms: evidence from the world business environment survey ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 87 No. 1 , pp. 75 - 88 , available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9871-4

Acknowledgements

This article was written while the author was a visiting scholar at the Basel Institute on Governance, associated institute to the University of Basel. The author would like to thank the institute for its kind hospitality. Furthermore, the author would like to gratefully acknowledge writing assistance by Eleanor Shaw. The usual disclaimer applies.

Corresponding author

About the author.

Dr Christian Hauser is Professor of Business Economics and International Management at the Swiss Institute for Entrepreneurship (SIFE) at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur. He studied Latin American Studies at the Universities of Cologne/Germany, Lisbon/Portugal and Fortaleza/Brazil. He is co-founder and member of the advisory board of the junior enterprise Connosco, Cologne, and co-founder of the Cologne Latin America Symposium (CLAS). In 2006, he earned his doctorate in economics on foreign trade promotion schemes at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Studies at the University of Cologne. During his doctoral study, he worked at the Centre for the Portuguese Speaking World at the University of Cologne. In 2006, he joined the Institute for SME Research (IfM) Bonn as a postdoctoral research associate. Since July 2007, he has been working at the SIFE on topics including international entrepreneurship, SME and private sector development, corporate responsibility and business integrity. Dr Hauser is a member of the topical platform Ethics of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW). He is a member of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Working Group on Anti-Corruption and head of the first PRME Business Integrity Action Center in Europe. PRME is the academic branch of the United Nations Global Compact (GC).

Related articles

We’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

Why we have to reimagine education to fight corruption

'To truly build systems and societies with integrity we need to reimagine education' Image:  REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Blair Glencorse

Vasilis koulolias.

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Corruption is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:.

Traditional approaches to fighting corruption tend to focus on rules, compliance and enforcement. Regulations are passed and organizations are formed to root out graft. These efforts may provide part of the solution, but are often hamstrung or ineffective in places where opacity and patronage are ingrained, and where there is a gap between legal frameworks and everyday behaviors. To truly build systems and societies with integrity we need to rethink these approaches and close these gaps through reimagining education.

This was a critical theme during the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption (PACI) Building Foundations for Trust & Integrity project, which we recently co-led through our organizations the Accountability Lab and the eGovlab . Whether brainstorming about primary school civics courses in Mexico ; developing creative accountability approaches through a film school in Liberia ; or using technology for transparency in Sweden , the project has helped to clarify how to use education to build integrity from the bottom-up.

A starting point is moving beyond traditional compliance and ethics courses, which tend to quickly become check-box exercises that students or employees find uninteresting or token. This means looking at approaches like values round-tables, targeted and creative accountability campaigns , and ethical dilemmas. Moreover, traditional classroom-based learning may allow for information transfer, but does not generally support the shifts in behaviors we need to build cultures of accountability. So let’s think about focusing on interactive materials, group-based work and action-learning initiatives.

Technology is, of course, transforming the ways that education can be delivered and experienced. Almost 4 billion people or 47% of the global population are now online, which presents an incredible opportunity for mass learning. But the content provided has to be tailored to address the specific needs of participants, particularly around issues of integrity and anti-corruption, where dynamics can vary greatly across contexts. This is where co-creation and co-design within e-learning play a critical role: to make the content relevant and realistic to address the local needs of stakeholders.

Through PACI, our organizations are now bringing together the very best engineers, anthropologists, design scientists, academics and programmers from around the world to develop new educational approaches and materials for building integrity based on these principles. The Knowledge 4 Trust Initiative will provide practical support for those change-makers across the public, private and civic sectors, who are looking to fight corruption.

Have you read?

Is the data revolution a game changer in the fight against corruption, corruption and the erosion of trust, this is how mexico is fighting corruption.

Using blended learning, interactive tools and an online and offline approach, the curriculum will focus on lessons, practices and ideas from a variety of domains and contexts. Topics will range from public sector reform issues to information systems innovations, and will aim to build a learning agenda that can revolutionize anti-corruption approaches. It will create an active community of responsible leaders that have the relevant skills, policy ideas and strategies to fight corruption in the modern era.

The programme will utilize eGovlab/Stockholm University’s online learning platform and combine it with Accountability Lab’s face-to-face workshops and co-creation sessions led by experts in the field. Participants will then work with the ideas they develop through the process to implement real change and validate their learning through practice.

As the political space for reformers seems to be shrinking globally, we need to find ways to make sure we are building societies with integrity, supporting values-based leadership and ensuring that advocates for positive change have the skills and knowledge they need. Now is the time for us to reimagine education to fight corruption.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:

The agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} weekly.

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Corruption .chakra .wef-17xejub{-webkit-flex:1;-ms-flex:1;flex:1;justify-self:stretch;-webkit-align-self:stretch;-ms-flex-item-align:stretch;align-self:stretch;} .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

5 ways leaders can tackle corruption, according to an anti-corruption expert

Linda Lacina and David Elliott

December 13, 2023

What is International Anti-Corruption Day – and why is it important?

Charlotte Edmond

December 4, 2023

Does the potential for corruption in the mining sector threaten a just energy transition?

Helen Clark

April 20, 2023

Why frontier technologies will drive the fight against corruption

Daniel Malan and Marlen Heide

March 9, 2023

Why fighting corruption is key to addressing the world's most pressing problems

Marlen Heide and Houssam Al Wazzan

December 5, 2022

How to fight corruption most effectively by carefully studying the context

Maral Muratbekova-Touron, Camilla Lee Park and Mauro Fracarolli Nunes

November 25, 2022

• Get involved

Fighting Corruption in the Education Sector

November 14, 2015.

This publication is part of a series of UNDP-sponsored studies that present methods, tools and good practices to map corruption risks, develop strategies and sustain partnerships to address challenges and tackle corruption in the education, health and water sectors. They complement UNDP’s MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF), which has been endorsed by the UN Development Group and enables governments and development partners, within established national processes, to identify and systematically prioritize the bottlenecks to progress toward achieving the MDGs, and then devise strategies to overcome them. The studies bring together UNDP’s efforts to support countries to develop frameworks to accelerate their efforts to meet the MDGs as well as successfully meet the commitments of the UN Convention against Corruption.

Other studies in the series:

Fighting Corruption in the Health Sector: Methods, Tools and Good Practices

Fighting Corruption in the Water Sector: Methods, Tools and Good Practices

Document Type

Related publications.

Publications

Mainstreaming financial aggregation for distributed renew....

This White Paper reiterates the critical role of Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) in addressing the energy crisis and aligning with the Paris Agreement goals.

The CAP Financial Innovation Challenge: A Summary Report ...

The report, part of the UNDP's Climate Aggregation Platform (CAP) report series published on January 26, 2024, provides an overview of the seven financial innov...

No Soft Landing for Developing Economies

Many developing economies are stuck in a negative debt-development feedback loop keeping them from undertaking new growth- and welfare-enhancing investments. Fo...

A Shared Vision for Digital Technology and Governance: Th...

This paper documents these benefits and risks and argues for effective governance of digital technologies to mitigate these challenges.

Digital Social Vulnerability Index Technical Whitepaper

The DSVI technical whitepaper explains the rationale, benefits, outcomes, methodologies and the relevance of the DSVI.

Tobacco Control: What Ministries of Agriculture Need to K...

This brief is part of a set of 13 that map out roles and first steps different parts of government can take to help achieve the SDGs by reducing tobacco use.

• ESSEC Foundation
• ESSEC Alumni
• Corporate Relations
• ESSEC Knowledge
• ESSEC ASIA-PACIFIC
• Digital Business
• Hospitality, Food & Travel
• Management & Society
• Impact Entrepreneurship
• Luxury, Arts & Culture
• International Governance & Dialogue
• Finance & Economy
• ESSEC BUSINESS SCHOOL
• RELATIONS ENTREPRISES
• ESSEC KNOWLEDGE
• CENTRES D'EXCELLENCE
• A propos d’essec ALUMNI

Essec Business School

Fighting corruption with education.

by Stefan Gröschl , 20.01.15

Every year, Transparency International measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide based on independent surveys and opinions of experts from around the world. Their latest Corruption Percentage Index was published last month, and reveals a disturbing picture: today, more than two-thirds of countries worldwide score below a 50 on a scale from 0 (highest level of corruption) to 100 (least corruption).  The situation appears even more alarming when we take into consideration all the indirect consequences of corruption: wealth and power for the very few, poverty for most.

But one of the correlations that I find most interesting is the link between corruption and education – or lack thereof. Indeed, a high level of corruption not only hinders economic growth – by discouraging investments and entrepreneurship and promoting income inequality – it also directly impacts governance, compounding educational deficits within the poorest segment of the population.

The poorest economies tend to have ineffective taxation systems, so they just don’t have the funds for public education infrastructures of services like even a basic education.  In the most corrupt countries, the public sector – which should be responsible for regulating public education and ensuring the wellbeing of society – becomes the root cause for a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and ignorance.  

Education as a Solution to Corruption

While one could argue that the private sector has a moral obligation to take the lead in the fight against this corruption, businesses are also often caught in the clutches of the public sector’s corruptive structures and practices. These are powerful forces that keep the status quo in place. However, education might be the strongest tool for fighting back!

Take the example of Cambodia, a country which ranks 136 th out of 187 in UNDP’s education index, and 156 th out of 175 in the Corruption Perceptions Index. Here, the French NGO Pour un Sourir d’enfant (PSE - for the smile of a child) has used education as a way out of this trap of corruption and poverty.  In 1995, PSE was established by a French couple in Phnom Penh to provide food, shelter, medical care, and general education and vocational training to destitute, maltreated, abused and uneducated children in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap.  Today, PSE is providing help to more than 6,500 children, supporting around 3,000 children in public schools, 1,500 in remedial education programs, and 1,500 in vocational training programs. Around 500 children benefit from its specific educational programs: classes for children with disabilities, day-care centers and infant welfare. 

Encouraged by the success of its vocational training programs, PSE created the PSE School of Business (BS) in 2000.  While originally starting out as an accounting and administrative oriented school, it has since then evolved in a fully-fledged business school covering all fundamental business and management disciplines.  The employment results, career evolution and salaries of PSE’s BS graduates have been very compatible by Cambodian standards.  The high demand by local and international companies in Cambodia for PSE’s BS graduates has pushed PSE to increase the size of its business school - enrolling almost 400 students in the 2014-2015 academic year.

Having visited and taught twice at PSE (a partner of ESSEC Business School), I can attest to the dedication of many PSE professors. They are becoming the vectors for real change in the country, by giving something back to the community and ensuring that kids of poor socio economic backgrounds get an opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families.  For many of the professors at PSE’s business school, teaching and mentoring responsibilities for students go beyond the classroom.  This means long hours at the school and on the campus for relatively little money.  Many of the professors have given up well-paid jobs, and others have denied well paid job opportunities in the private sector. 

Educated and well trained professionals in marketing, finance, accounting, operations, and IT are still rare in Cambodia, as a result of the Khmer Rouge’s attempts to eradicate intellectuals, academics and other educated citizen in the 1970s.  Therefore, PSE professors are in high demand. Cambodia is quickly becoming an excellent example of how education can change the very fabric of a society, bring people out of poverty and create a stronger working class capable of fighting back against corruption.

Ultimately, education offers a way out of poverty by challenging the corruptive structures and systems within the public sector.  While transnational organizations and the private sector still struggle to deal with corruption successfully, business schools – and other institutions – can play a much more important role in addressing corruption: from starting to put greater emphasis on teaching topics such as business ethics and corruption, to actively engaging and supporting NGOs within the educational sector of developing countries with high rates of corruption.

• management department
• center of excellence management & society
• emerging economy
• equal opportunity

Related Articles

The Old Girls Club: Gender Quotas and Women as Role Models

Paris 2024: Paralympians in the Spotlight!

Making Gender Diversity Work

Can Professors Contribute to Society Outside of the Lecture Hall?

Can we measure social entrepreneurship activity globally?

Euro 2016 and the Rise of Xenophobic Politics

Educating our future business leaders: Beyond teaching as usual

Does going to business school turn you into a more selfish person?

Essec knowledge on x, featured industries.

• Legal services Should corporations be made accountable for risky behavior?
• Tourism The New Street Food and Why We Crave Authenticity
• Transportation Challenges for car manufacturers in a disruptive electromobility 2.0 industry
• Energy The European Nuclear Stress Test
• Auditing Cracking down on tax avoidance

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

• Search Menu
• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Acquisition
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Religion
• Music and Media
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Strategy
• Business Ethics
• Business History
• Business and Government
• Business and Technology
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic Systems
• Economic History
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Public Administration
• Public Policy
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous chapter
• Next chapter >

23 International Efforts to Combat Corruption

Mathis Lohaus is a postdoctoral research associate at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin. His research is focused on international organizations, the diffusion of ideas, and international norms more broadly. Mathis has published Towards a Global Consensus Against Corruption: International Agreements as Products of Diffusion and Signals of Commitment with Routledge in 2019.

Ellen Gutterman is Associate Professor of Political Science at Glendon College, York University in Toronto. Her research is focused on various aspects of the global governance of transnational crime and corruption, including a current project on transnational advocacy in the global anticorruption sphere. She has published articles in Review of International Studies, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis , and elsewhere.

• Published: 14 July 2021
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

Attempts to improve the domestic quality of government often involve international arrangements and the fight against corruption is a prominent example. Since the 1990s, anticorruption pledges, international treaties, soft law arrangements, transnational advocacy campaigns, and other commitments have proliferated to control bribery and corruption in a range of contexts. This chapter surveys the literature on the emergence and characteristics of these various initiatives and provides an overview of what is known about their impacts on policy and discourse, law, and behavior. While empirical evidence on the impact of international anticorruption efforts is mixed, existing studies and directions for future research suggest that the quality of government in highly developed states is crucial when it comes to controlling transnational business bribery, money laundering, and other illicit financial flows.

Introduction

Attempts to improve the domestic quality of government often involve international actors. The fight against corruption is no exception. Such efforts are often labeled as matters of good governance. In other instances, corruption has been linked to standards of democracy, to more procedural concerns about the rule of law, and (by some) as a matter of human rights. Irrespective of the framing in individual cases, fighting corruption can be seen as a necessary condition for quality of government: Impartial governance, the gold standard of QoG, is impossible under conditions of systematic corruption, which is always about providing benefits to some at the expense of others ( Rothstein and Teorell 2008 ; Kurer 2005 ).

After early efforts to address the global challenge of corruption during the 1970s had failed, the issue rapidly gathered momentum during the 1990s. Today, the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) has been ratified by 187 states and laws to curb corruption are commonplace around the world. At the same time, however, there is no evidence that quality of government has improved across the board. Corruption remains a crucial challenge for domestic governance as well as international cooperation. This chapter provides an overview of international efforts to combat corruption. It is guided by two broad questions: First, what is known about the emergence and characteristics of the various types of anticorruption efforts? Second, how do they affect the quality of government?

The remainder of this chapter is divided into two parts. First, the following section surveys global and regional anticorruption initiatives. This includes nonbinding initiatives, such as high-level declarations resulting from regional or global summits. Moreover, anticorruption is codified in various international treaties as well as in the rules of multilateral institutions. These commitments are briefly described to provide a bird’s-eye view. Second, several issues are discussed in more detail: The linkage between international law and domestic implementation; the roles played by international mechanisms to prod governments towards compliance; and matters relating to the quality of government in the member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which are crucial for effectively curtailing bribe payments and money laundering. The chapter concludes with a summary and future directions for international anticorruption research and policy.

What is International about the Fight Against Corruption?

As a prerequisite, one needs to clarify why corruption necessitates an international response in the first place. Most corrupt practices, after all, likely occur within national boundaries. So, what is international about the fight against corruption? This agenda gained momentum in the 1990s in response to a number of global developments ( George, Lacey, and Birmele 1999 ; McCoy and Heckel 2001 ). Two main factors are often named: The end of the Cold War and the global trend towards democratization. As competition between the blocs ceased to be the primary concern of foreign policy, it was no longer necessary for the major powers to protect allied but deeply corrupt regimes at all costs. The spread of democratic forms of government, at the same time, put pressure on political elites. Freedom of speech and other political rights translated into demands for more accountability, which prompted newly democratic governments to express their commitment to anticorruption measures. These two trends thus allowed anticorruption to take hold on the global stage.

In addition to the structural changes, the literature points to several political dynamics. In Europe, the end of the Cold War translated into efforts to admit new members into regional institutions. Seeing a need for harmonization before and during accession, the Council of Europe and the European Union (EC at the time) promoted reforms in the neighborhood. Some authors also point to the role of corruption scandals in Europe and other developed countries, triggering public outrage and demands for reform. In the meantime, the United States emerged as a powerful government advocate for anticorruption in the field of transnational business. U.S. exporters were bound by the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which made it illegal to bribe foreign officials. For competitors from the rest of the OECD world, such practices were legal and often tax-deductible. As globalization led to more competition for global market shares, U.S. negotiators sought to level the playing field through an international agreement ( Abbott and Snidal 2002 ). Finally, expert opinions on corruption shifted during the early 1990s. While previous works had speculated that corrupt practices might be useful to grease the wheels of commerce and bypass inefficient bureaucrats, new methods and evidence pointed to the detrimental effects of corruption on social and economic development. The famous “cancer of corruption” speech by World Bank president Wolfensohn illustrates this change of heart among academics and policy experts ( Wolfensohn 1996 ). Since then, anticorruption has become a key objective for multilateral institutions and bilateral donors.

Trying to assess the relative importance of different explanatory factors seems moot at this point. One way or the other, anticorruption rapidly gained prominence, causing some to speak of a “corruption eruption” ( Glynn, Kobrin, and Naím 1997 ). Critics refer to an “industry” or “gospel” of anticorruption ( Sampson 2010 ; Wedel 2015 ). In any case, the mushrooming of initiatives (see below) stands in dramatic contrast to the situation up until 1995, when no international organization had yet adopted binding anticorruption commitments. Now almost every sovereign state in the international system has ratified at least one international treaty designed to combat corruption; some have joined five global and regional conventions ( Lohaus 2019b , 3).

Overview of International Law and Other Initiatives

Following the eruption during the 1990s and early 2000s, anticorruption is now well established on the global political agenda. This section surveys the literature regarding the emergence and characteristics of four types of initiatives: Political declarations adopted at high-level international summits; international treaties and protocols with some degree of legal obligation; anticorruption provisions in multilateral frameworks for development cooperation; and transnational initiatives involving nonstate actors. Research on their effects on the quality of government will be considered in the subsequent sections.

High-level political declarations

For decades, government representatives have used international gatherings to declare their intention to combat corruption. One of the earliest cases is the 1975 UN General Assembly Resolution 3514 on corrupt practices of transnational corporations. In this brief declaration, the General Assembly urged corporations to respect local laws while calling on governments to adopt anti-bribery legislation and gather data on corrupt practices. Several months earlier, a similar statement had been issued by the Organization of American States (OAS), in which the 35 members declared that transnational enterprises ought to act in accordance with the economic and social development goals of host countries. However, these early proposals regarding anticorruption were split between different interpretations of the problem. Among G-77 members, for instance, the view was that anticorruption policies were needed to constrain corporate conduct generally and to prevent the political interference of multinational corporations in democratic processes. In contrast, the United States emphasized a focus on illicit payments and corporate bribery as isolated transactions to be controlled ( Katzarova 2019 ). As no coalition was able to sustain diplomatic efforts, the early initiatives fizzled out.

At the 1994 Summit of the Americas, corruption again appeared as a concern for heads of state. Seeking to energize the OAS and pave the way for closer cooperation across the Americas, the U.S. government provided organizational leadership for a new “hemispheric approach” to anticorruption. The summit’s declaration recognized corruption as a challenge to democracy and multiple Latin American states backed the new agenda. Leaders in other regions issued similar declarations, for instance the 1999 “Principles for Combating Corruption in Africa” ( Marong 2002 ).

Further high-level declarations have been made in the context of the G7/G8 and G20 meetings of powerful states. Participants of the G20 created an “anti-corruption working group” at the Toronto summit in 2010, followed by an “action plan” at the Seoul summit later that year. Since then, the G20 declarations have regularly mentioned corruption, and the action plan was recently updated for the 2019–21 period. Individual members have complemented this agenda. The British government, for instance, invited heads of state and other representatives from more than 40 countries to a 2016 anticorruption summit in London. While Transparency International (TI) deemed the meeting a success, other observers were less positive and demanded more concrete steps ( Transparency International 2016 ).

With the establishment of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), anticorruption took center stage in international development cooperation, too. With SDG 16.5, UN members vouch to “substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.” Importantly from a QoG perspective, this commitment is linked to a benchmark. Success regarding SDG 16.5 is measured by how often public officials are bribed or ask for a bribe. This data is to be collected for two groups: The general public on the one hand, business actors on the other. Corruption has thus been established as a priority for development cooperation under the UN umbrella—albeit as one item among many.

International treaties and protocols

The most widely ratified international treaty to curb corruption is the 2003 United Nations Convention against Corruption, which has 187 state parties at the time of writing. In addition to its unparalleled reach, UNCAC stands out because it is very broad. The treaty encompasses 71 articles with provisions on preventive measures, rules regarding criminalization and jurisdiction, domestic standards of enforcement, and international cooperation ( UNODC 2012 ). In 2009, a few years after UNCAC had been ratified, member states agreed to create a peer review system. The Implementation Review Mechanism (IRM) is meant to assess how member states implement different parts of UNCAC, with the current (second) cycle focused on prevention and asset recovery. The IRM employs a combination of self-assessment and (optional) country visits. Each country under review works to produce a consensus report with delegates from two peer states at similar levels of government performance. The consensus requirement means that countries under review can modify or even block publication of their IRM report. Other aspects of the IRM process also permit states to exploit lenient procedures and potentially manipulate the review process, which has lessened the perceived authority of the IRM among some parties ( Jongen 2018 ). Regardless of these limitations, the IRM remains an active and vital component of the UNCAC and a significant accomplishment among international anticorruption efforts; its very creation surprised experts at the time, who had not expected the diverse UN membership to agree on such a mechanism ( Chaikin and Sharman 2009 , 41–2; Joutsen and Graycar 2012 ).

In contrast to the broad UNCAC, the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions is focused on transnational bribery. It was adopted in 1997 and has since been ratified by all OECD states as well as several nonmembers. As already mentioned, the origins of this agreement can be traced to lobbying by the United States, which sought to internationalize domestic legislation against the payment of bribes to secure business deals. In the absence of a global standard, governments would always be tempted to allow their businesses to pay bribes to gain a competitive advantage. That is why the OECD, whose members compete for the exports of goods and services, was seen as the optimal venue to solve this cooperation problem ( Pieth 1997 ; Abbott and Snidal 2002 ; Gutterman 2015 ).

While UNCAC and the OECD convention receive the most academic and political attention, anticorruption was addressed in regional forums first. The OAS was the pioneer among regional organizations, adopting its anticorruption convention in 1996. The Council of Europe and European Union both adopted regional conventions, which focused mostly on harmonizing criminal law. 1 On the African continent, the Economic Commission for West Africa (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) adopted anticorruption protocols in 2001, shortly before the African Union (AU) finalized its anti corruption convention in 2003 . Asia appears to be an outlier, although some regional groups cooperate with the OECD in nonbinding forums. Including the 2010 Arab anticorruption convention, largely ignored in the literature, at least nine international and regional organizations have thus adopted treaties to combat corruption.

While these documents share many elements, they are not identical in how they cover prevention, criminalization, enforcement, and international cooperation ( Arnone and Borlini 2014 ; Lohaus 2019b ; Snider and Kidane 2007 ; Wouters, Ryngaert, and Cloots 2013 ). Some organizations focus on a narrow range of corruption offenses. The OECD is primarily concerned with transnational bribery of foreign public officials related to business transactions, while the European Union initially created a treaty to ban bribery of its own officials. Enforcement cooperation in these cases relies on monitoring and peer pressure mechanisms to supervise member state compliance. Other cases combine binding language on a few core commitments with many optional clauses. The OAS convention, for instance, obliges members to ban a narrow range of corrupt behavior. It also allows states to establish illicit enrichment as a corruption offense—but leaves this as purely optional, because the concept was contested among member states. In contrast, the African anticorruption agreements stand out because they include many provisions with seemingly obligatory language. Not just far-reaching criminalization but also preventive measures, such as standards of procurement and public sector hiring, are mandatory in these cases. However, the high proportion of mandatory clauses is undermined by a lack of monitoring and enforcement, which arguably turns the African regional agreements into “illusionary giants” ( Lohaus 2019b , chapter 2).

What explains this multitude of agreements? U.S. diplomats played a decisive role as advocates for the OAS, OECD, and UN conventions. As a result, Katzarova argues, the dominant American conception of corruption as transactional rather than systemic—that is, limited to bribery—has prevailed at the expense of alternative conceptions which may have otherwise challenged the rules of the international economic system, demanded curbs to the power of multinational corporations, and tackled networked aspects of corruption across the licit and illicit economic spheres ( Katzarova 2019 ). In her book on the emergence of anticorruption efforts, Rose also emphasizes the influence of U.S. negotiators on the UNCAC and other initiatives ( Rose 2015 ). Gutterman argues that international anticorruption efforts unfold within an American-dominated regime of extraterritoriality, fundamentally grounded in U.S.-based social, legal, and political concepts and diffused through distinctly American legal norms and practices ( Gutterman 2019b ). In his account of the fight against kleptocratic “grand corruption,” Sharman identifies a more decentralized, undirected, and coincidental process of change and responses to development policy failures ( Sharman 2017 ). Jakobi places the fight against corruption in the context of a broader trend towards global governance to curb criminal behavior. In line with similar measures against money laundering and other “evils,” corruption thus became institutionalized in world society ( Jakobi 2013 ). Lohaus argues that diffusion processes, such as learning and emulation, influenced the drafting of anticorruption treaties. The documents vary in content because they are designed to send signals to different audiences: domestic constituents, states in the same organization, or external development partners ( Lohaus 2019b ).

Multilateral institutions

The World Bank has incorporated anticorruption into its lending practices since the late 1990s when corruption was named as an obstacle to development. As with its policy on other issues of public administration and the rule of law, the Bank seeks to avoid inefficiencies or the misappropriation of funds. This was controversial at first, seeing how corruption was understood as a “political” concern. However, since the landmark “cancer of corruption” speech, the fight against corruption is established in the Bank’s policy portfolio. The strongest enforcement mechanism, however, does not address the governments of recipient countries, but the behavior of companies competing for public tenders. When a company is found guilty of using bribery to win a procurement contract, it can be barred from future World Bank tenders. This debarment procedure was reformed multiple times during the 2000s and 2010s and is now managed by the Integrity Vice Presidency. Information on offenders is shared with regional development banks in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This virtually always leads to cross-debarment since 2010 ( Leroy and Fariello 2012 ; Søreide, Gröning, and Wandall 2016 ).

The effectiveness of the World Bank’s measures is debated in the literature (e.g., Bauhr and Nasiritousi 2012 ; Marquette 2003 ; Weaver 2008 ). The same is true for measures adopted by the International Monetary Fund as well as the development agencies in the United Nations system. Because development cooperation is covered elsewhere in this volume (see Dietrich and Winters , this volume), we will not discuss these institutions further.

NGOs, professional associations, and business

Transparency International is arguably the leading transnational NGO in the field of anticorruption ( Wang and Rosenau 2001 ; Gutterman 2014 ). It was founded in 1993 by a group of experienced development professionals. According to one of the founding members, the group was motivated by frustration with how development efforts were undermined by corruption ( Vogl 2012 , 61–3). While Transparency International’s global headquarters—the TI Secretariat—are in Berlin, it has independent chapters at the national level. The chapters have country-specific priorities, but all parts of TI broadly follow three goals: raise public awareness about corruption, lobby governments and businesses, and keep track of developments around the globe. In 2006, TI started the UNCAC coalition together with other civil society actors. This loose network of NGOs now encompasses more than 300 partners. The coalition reflects TI’s goal of organizing and exchanging ideas among anticorruption activists, also driven by the desire to present a unified position vis-a-vis government and business actors.

TI’s best-known initiative is the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Since 1995, the organization publishes an annual ranking of countries meant to reflect the levels of corrupt behavior perceived by citizens and business actors. The CPI has been praised for its enormous awareness-raising effect and criticized for methodological shortcomings ( Heywood and Rose 2014 ). In addition to the CPI, the organization has published multiple iterations of the Bribe Payers Index (BPI), asking corporate actors to report illicit payments. TI also publishes reports on country compliance with the OECD convention. Yet overall, Transparency International’s approach has been characterized as “non-confrontational” ( Gutterman 2014 ). Particularly in the early years of (successful) agenda-setting, the organization often relied on high-level contacts and the persuasion of key government officials rather than mass mobilization or “naming and shaming” corrupt actors. Funding for TI mainly comes from government and multilateral development agencies.

Business actors have become active in international anticorruption, too. Business associations in multiple industries with high corruption risk have committed to codes of conduct and other nonbinding principles. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published its first anticorruption rules in 1977; the document has been updated several times since, with the latest edition published in 2011 ( ICC 2011 ). Additionally, business actors cooperate with governments and civil society. The Publish What You Pay (PWYP) initiative asks its member firms to publicize the conditions of deals related to natural resources. If fees and profits were public, so it was thought, citizens would be better able to hold their officials accountable ( Getz 2006 ). A similar logic is enshrined in the multi-stakeholder Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), founded in 2003 ( Eigen 2009 ). This group includes multinational corporations (MNCs) in the extractive industries, host governments in mineral-rich countries, and MNC home governments. Initially designed as a voluntary process of revenue disclosure for payments from companies to governments, EITI has evolved into a global standard for the management and accountability of extractive industries and their value chains in resource rich countries. EITI rules now encompass a wide range of practices relating to contract transparency, beneficial ownership, and commodity trading ( Lujala, Rustad, and Le Billon 2017 ). However, critics argue that certain exclusions from the reporting requirements—for instance, states do not have to disclose line-by-line sums regarding licensing fees—limit the EITI’s potential to create full transparency ( Rose 2015 , 133–75).

In recent years, other NGOs, government-sponsored groups, and business-led initiatives have begun to champion anticorruption policies and practices of various kinds. Some take a more confrontational stance towards North American and European governments and private actors. Global Witness, a founding member of both PWYP and EITI, has exposed U.S. law firms that seemed all too willing to provide services to corrupt foreign officials seeking to hide the proceeds of corruption in American investments ( Global Witness 2016 ). Investigative-reporting collectives and organizations working with whistleblowers have highlighted the flows of corruption-related funds in reports such as the “Panama Papers” and “Paradise Papers” ( AIPC 2017 ). The Tax Justice Network, a small transnational NGO, advocates for reforms to curtail “financial secrecy” ( Tax Justice Network 2018 ). These efforts put the spotlight on OECD member states, urging them to exclude ill-gotten gains from their financial systems. Integrity Initiatives International advocates the establishment of a permanent International Anticorruption Court to prosecute corrupt government leaders, on a jurisdictional basis akin to that of the International Criminal Court ( Wolf 2018 ).

Increasingly, various organizations address corruption as part of their broader advocacy efforts. 2 The Open Government Partnership (OGP) has made anticorruption a key policy area in its work to enhance governance and “democracy beyond the ballot box” among national and local level participants. OGP has teamed with the organization OpenOwnership to establish a peer learning network for the promotion of beneficial ownership transparency in line with open data principles. By making company records publicly accessible, activists hope to improve governments’ and other actors’ ability to track corruption and related illicit financial flows. On the business side, the B Team is a not-for-profit initiative founded by prominent global business leaders. In addition to anticorruption initiatives and beneficial ownership transparency, the B Team encourages global business attention to broad social purposes including climate change and human rights. Under the umbrella of the World Economic Forum, corporate leaders have created the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI). By addressing corporate transparency and emerging market-risk, they seek to promote anticorruption practices that improve the ease of doing business. In sum, a new generation of NGOs, public–private partnerships, and business groups is adding to the range of anticorruption demands and policy proposals on the international scene.

The Impact(s) of Anticorruption Efforts

Since the 1990s, anticorruption pledges, international treaties, and other commitments have proliferated. Assessing the impact of such efforts is no easy task given the breadth of the literature and the difficulty of obtaining empirical evidence; corrupt practices are hard to study. It seems more appropriate to speak of multiple impacts on a wide range of actors and outcomes including discourse, laws, and behavior. This section first discusses how international law shapes the conditions for domestic governance. Focusing on literature from International Relations, the next part addresses how governments can be influenced through peer pressure and reputational costs. This is followed by a section on an underappreciated aspect of global anticorruption: The quality of government in OECD countries. In contrast to the usual targets of anticorruption reforms, the governments of highly developed states are crucial when it comes to controlling business-related bribery, money laundering, and illicit financial flows.

International treaties and domestic implementation

International agreements prescribing standards are one part of the equation; yet their implementation depends on laws and practices at the national level. Both legal scholars and political scientists have analyzed the contents of anticorruption agreements, usually by comparing the range of issues addressed in the documents, their level of detail, and the degree of legal obligation for different provisions ( Snider and Kidane 2007 ; Webb 2005 ; Wouters, Ryngaert, and Cloots 2013 ). Due to its importance as the only agreement with a global reach, UNCAC has received the lion’s share of attention. The range of issues covered by the treaty is ambitiously broad. UNCAC features “no fewer than a dozen different levels of implementation obligations [ … ] from hard (mandatory requirements) to very soft” ( Arnone and Borlini 2014 , 258). In the words of one critic, the many escape clauses and concessions to domestic concerns work like “termites,” undermining the potential of UNCAC as a serious commitment ( Schroth 2005 ). Looking beyond UNCAC, some of the regional treaties and protocols have narrowly focused and obligatory clauses, while others resemble “illusionary giants” whose commitments seem less impressive upon closer inspection ( Lohaus 2019b ).

More fundamentally, some legal scholars debate whether international law can be expected to be an effective remedy against corruption ( Davis 2012 ). Optimists would stress that international agreements indeed have made a mark. While certain aspects of corruption were illegal in many countries long before the 2000s, the adoption of UNCAC and regional treaties sparked further change. Many African states, for instance, introduced new anticorruption laws and institutions to comply with treaty commitments ( Hatchard 2014 , 33). This effect becomes obvious when looking at national anticorruption laws and authorities from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, which often bear recent dates of adoption or amendment ( UNODC 2019 ). One of the most widespread institutional reforms has been the creation of national anticorruption agencies, although enthusiasm about such institutions has since dampened among academics and policy experts ( de Sousa 2010 ).

This brings us to the skeptical perspective, according to which anticorruption efforts are unlikely to systematically change incentives or serve as sources of moral persuasion. Critics contend that anticorruption institutions might be captured by elites and that legal rules have little traction in the context of limited statehood or developing economies. In addition to such general concerns, skeptics argue that international (and thus: external) actors are often unable to effectively tackle corruption because of their limited willingness, power, knowledge, and/or legitimacy ( Davis 2012 , 333–5).

To be sure, no robust link between the ratification of anticorruption treaties and subsequent improvements in the quality of government has been found ( Mungiu-Pippidi et al. 2011 ). The consensus in the literature holds that three decades of international anticorruption efforts have yielded few, if any, positive results ( Heywood 2018 ; Johnston 2018 ). Clearly, the implementation of treaties in national law is no panacea: Implementation guarantees neither enforcement nor effectiveness, especially in states with a strong executive and weak judiciary. While countries often implemented new policies shortly after they ratified UNCAC, for example, these were not necessarily effective ( Buscaglia 2011 ). One study based on data from over one hundred countries between 1984 and 2012 has even argued that the flurry of initiatives led to an increase in perceived corruption, simply because citizens and business actors became more sensitive to corrupt practices ( Cole 2015 ). Another recent quantitative study suggests that international organizations with relatively corrupt member states are unlikely to enforce anticorruption agreements. In other words, initiatives to address domestic corruption likely remain ineffective “cheap talk” in exactly those cases where they would be most useful ( Hafner-Burton and Schneider 2019 ).

With respect to implementation of the OECD Convention to curb transnational bribery, the empirical evidence of impact is decidedly mixed. One study of foreign firms operating in Vietnam found that those from countries party to the Convention reduced their payments of certain kinds of illicit fees when the chances of discovery increased due to the Convention’s monitoring and enforcement processes. However, the same study also observed an increase in corruption among firms from nonsignatory states during the same period ( Jensen and Malesky 2018 ). Even among the Convention’s signatory states, only a few countries are active enforcers. Countervailing pressures and electoral incentives in wealthy democracies sometimes promote non compliance with international anti-bribery rules ( Gilbert and Sharman 2016 ; Gutterman 2017 ).

These empirical findings are difficult to generalize and compare because of diverging theoretical assumptions, statistical techniques, and operationalizations of the notoriously slippery concept of corruption. All quantitative studies relying on country-level corruption data should be taken with a grain of salt given the questionable quality of comparative data ( Heywood and Rose 2014 ; Knack 2007 ). Yet overall, the skeptical perspective seems to prevail. In many countries, corruption does not appear to be a principal–agent problem amenable to legal-technical intervention. When the highest political elites are entrenched in corrupt networks, international commitments cannot change the fundamental incentives—even when they do lead to new implementing laws. The best bet for anticorruption activists might then be to think of corruption as a collective action problem. Seen through this lens, international instruments should not be expected to change the balance of power directly—but they might be useful to rally and empower domestic actors ( Persson, Rothstein, and Teorell 2012 ; Mungiu-Pippidi 2015 , 221–6).

In an alternative approach, “anticorruption” and the pursuit of “good governance” from above might be reconsidered completely, in favor of an explicitly political and normative approach premised on the cultivation of “deep democratization” from below ( Johnston 2005 , ch. 8; Johnston 2014 ; see also Sparling 2018 ). Pushing past a focus on impartiality as a procedural norm, this approach entails the promotion of domestic processes to increase pluralism, to open political and economic space for people to pursue their own interests in “safe” activism, and to maintain accountability among those in power. The goal is to enable citizens to defend themselves and their interests by political means, with an emphasis on the aspirations and grievances they care about. Rather than an implementation of international rules or an outcome of political activity, therefore, anticorruption is thus reconceived as a “continuing process of setting limits to power, building accountability, and establishing social and political foundations of support for reforms by bringing more voices and interests into the governing process” ( Johnston 2013 , 1238) This approach to “deep democratization” requires gradual reform over the long term, and it is difficult: It requires social and political actors to confront head-on what are real political disagreements about the nature of politics ( Sparling 2018 )—at base, questions about the appropriate relationships among states, markets, and bureaucracies—that international anticorruption treaties elide.

The political dynamics of peer pressure, persuasion, and reputation

International efforts may have a limited potential to affect the domestic quality of government. But that does not mean they have no impact whatsoever. Membership conditionality might be the strongest mechanism available to international organizations. The most likely case for this mechanism to be effective is the European Union, where membership rights are tied to enormous economic benefits. The EU’s policy towards candidates and neighboring countries is the most widely cited success story when it comes to the promotion of QoG norms by international organizations ( Sandholtz and Gray 2003 ; Szarek-Mason 2010 ; Börzel, Stahn, and Pamuk 2010 ). However, the EU’s policy toolkit loses its bite as soon as the target state has acquired membership rights, which can lead to a “backsliding” dynamic that undoes previous reforms ( Kartal 2014 ; van Hüllen and Börzel 2015 ).

A softer form of international pressure is exerted by peer review mechanisms, which are used in the anticorruption regimes of the Council of Europe, OECD, Organization of American States, and United Nations. In all four, member states periodically report on their efforts to implement the rules of the respective agreement, and other members of the organization provide their own assessments. While such reviews do not include sanctions, their effects as exchanges of information and venues for peer pressure are said to improve compliance with international standards. However, the existing anticorruption peer reviews differ regarding transparency towards the public, the formal rules of procedure, and the informal rules of criticism among members. The widely lauded OECD model of peer review might be difficult to replicate in other contexts ( Jongen 2018 ; Carraro, Conzelmann, and Jongen 2019 ).

In addition to monitoring among peers, international anticorruption efforts routinely target the reputation of states that are found to violate global norms. In the field of anticorruption, such measures can be grouped in two camps. On the one hand, there are some state-led initiatives to single out offending businesses or governments. This includes the World Bank debarment measures and its rankings of good governance and the rule of law. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) 3 and the European Union also publish “blacklists” to pressure governments into complying with standards against money laundering and tax evasion ( Sharman 2010 ; Nance 2015 ). On the other hand, naming and shaming is often used by nongovernmental actors, which have no other leverage over governments. In addition to raising public awareness, assessment tools such as the Corruption Perceptions Index or the Financial Secrecy Index are designed to push governments towards behavioral change ( Urueña 2018 ; Seabrooke and Wigan 2015 ). Corruption is also seen as a risk to transnational business and thus assessed by commercial services like the Economist Intelligence Unit and the PRS Group.

The International Relations literature discusses such mechanisms under the terms “naming and shaming,” “ranking,” “benchmarking,” and the “politics of numbers” ( Busby and Greenhill 2015 ; Broome and Quirk 2015 ; Kelley and Simmons 2015 ; Merry 2018 ; Cooley and Snyder 2015 ; Merry, Davis, and Kingsbury 2015 ). Several effects of such rankings and benchmarks can be distinguished. Some researchers stress that governments accused of corruption might enact new policies because they genuinely seek the approval of their peers and the public; they are persuaded and socialized into tackling corruption. Other authors argue that rankings and blacklists constitute pressure rather than persuasion. When a government is labeled as corrupt, it will scramble to pay lip service to global norms, with the goal of appeasing constituents, donors, and/or investors. Critics of the various rankings thus emphasize the power relations hidden behind seemingly technical indicators. Examinees are taken to be responsible for a negative classification in the rankings, and for future improvement under the guidance of those who wield the power to set the standards in the first place ( Löwenheim 2008 ).

At the same time, rankings obscure the responsibility of the multiplicity of actors and systems implicated in transnational (as opposed to purely domestic) corrupt practices and illicit financial flows. Rankings may thus depoliticize the problems they purport to measure ( Merry, Davis, and Kingsbury 2015 ). The premise of country-level corruption rankings, furthermore, entails a methodological nationalism that is incompatible with transnational notions of corruption. They hardly account for the globalized networks of professionals and elites which facilitate corruption via cross-border illicit finance and offshore transactions ( Cooley and Sharman 2017 ; Cooley 2018 ). In sum, the emphasis on country-level measures and rankings in analyses of corruption is not in line with how many forms of corruption operate in practice ( Heywood 2017 ).

Transnational corruption and quality of government within the OECD

The most widely discussed element of transnational corruption is bribery in the context of cross-border trade and investment. All parties to the 1997 OECD Convention declared their willingness to stop corporations based in their territory from offering and paying bribes abroad. By curtailing the supply of bribery payments, quality of government can be improved to the extent that politicians in the receiving countries have fewer incentives to deviate from the public good. However, it is worth noting that the OECD agreement is not designed to address regulation in countries with low QoG scores (as much of development policy does). Instead, rules against foreign bribery concern law enforcement in the exporting countries —which are not normally worried about their own quality of government.

Based on the long history of the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practices Act, U.S. government agencies have become the most stringent enforcers of such laws, with the frequency of enforcement increasing over time ( Gutterman 2019a ). Due to the importance of U.S. markets, they also have the furthest reach, paired with enormous sanctioning power. No matter where multinational businesses are domiciled, they can be subject to U.S. enforcement actions. If a firm has ties to American markets, for instance via stock listings or dollar-denominated assets, or even simply makes use of financial instruments and communications that pass through the U.S., it can be prosecuted. By contrast, many other OECD member states seem to enforce their rules only infrequently. Half of them, in fact, had not ordered criminal sanctions once during the first twenty years of the Convention ( OECD 2017 ). According to Transparency International, just a handful of OECD states can be considered “active enforcers” ( Heimann, Földes, and Coles 2015 ).

How can this variation be explained? For the German case, local state attorneys appear to be crucial—which stands in contrast to the U.S., which has centralized enforcement at the federal level ( Hoven 2018 ). Moreover, there seems to be a domino effect. Quantitative evidence suggests that countries are more likely to start enforcing their laws against foreign bribery once a company from their own jurisdiction has been targeted by enforcement from elsewhere ( Kaczmarek and Newman 2011 ). While extraterritoriality is highly contested, it thus seems to have had a positive effect in the eyes of some anticorruption activists. However, relying on unilateral, extraterritorial action might become more difficult to stomach once other actors begin to play a more active role. Chinese foreign policy and legal doctrine, for instance, is increasingly assertive about pursuing disgraced officials and businesspeople abroad ( Lang 2018 ; Quah 2018 ). The line between so-called “political” prosecutions and straightforward application of (international) law will remain contentious.

Money laundering, illicit financial flows, and international asset recovery all resemble transnational bribery: Effective regulation can only occur when OECD countries implement the respective standards, because that is where banks and financial intermediaries are concentrated. Another similarity is that unilateral actions by the U.S. government have been instrumental in triggering global change (e.g., Bean 2018 ). Driven by antidrug and anti-terrorism demands, the U.S. has strongly promoted the FATF, which has become the de facto standard setter on anti-money laundering ( Kahler 2018 ). Together with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank has launched the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative, which aims to help governments recover funds that (former) corrupt officials have stashed in financial centers abroad. Yet success has been limited due to the difficulties of acquiring evidence and building solid transnational cases ( Pieth 2008 ; Fenner Zinkernagel, Monteith, and Gomes Pereira 2013 ; Gray, et al. 2014 ; Sharman 2017 ; Lohaus 2019a ).

These aspects of illicit transnational finance are connected by two common threads. First, they are intimately connected to domestic corruption, which is often the predicate offense and the source of the funds channeled abroad ( Chaikin and Sharman 2009 ) as well as a key driver of illicit trade in drugs, people, natural resources, and counterfeit goods ( Shelley 2018 ). Second, the success of international efforts to curb these practices depends on governance and political will in highly developed states home to sophisticated financial institutions. It may not be feasible to completely alter incentives so that large-scale corruption simply becomes unattractive; but improved money laundering prevention and asset recovery mechanisms could contribute to justice and improved funding for development initiatives ( Lohaus 2019a ). Several scholars are advocating for this transnational view on anticorruption—either in addition to or instead of the predominant focus on improving QoG in developing countries ( Cooley and Sharman 2017 ; Forstater 2018 ; Sharman 2017 ; Reuter 2012 ). Put differently, opposing corruption might require a look beyond the “usual suspects.”

International efforts against corruption come in many shapes and forms not limited to intergovernmental treaties. They include soft law, self-regulation, naming and shaming, and hard law under various headings, like in parts of broader EU regulations. Thus, many international standards and tools are available to those willing to use them. However, enforcement remains selective. This is true even for the OECD anti-bribery rules, which can be considered the “gold standard” in terms of rule precision and the efficacy of peer review.

Some authors emphasize how anticorruption constitutes a success of nonstate activism, norm entrepreneurs, and moral arguments ( Wang and Rosenau 2001 ; McCoy and Heckel 2001 ). Others focus on the success of foreign policy interests, most notably U.S. efforts to internationalize domestic norms against foreign bribery and, more recently, money laundering ( Abbott and Snidal 2002 ; Kahler 2018 ; Katzarova 2019 ). Another perspective is centered on diffusion processes, with some authors emphasizing agents and mechanisms ( Lohaus 2019b ) and others choosing a structural lens, arguing that anticorruption conforms to broader (neoliberal) ideas ( Bukovansky 2006 ; Jakobi 2013 ).

How do these international efforts affect the quality of government? So far, the debate between optimists and skeptics has yielded some empirical evidence in both directions: It seems that international measures led to legal and policy changes around the world but failed to trigger fundamental improvements in practice. At the same time, there is a lack of reliable and comparable data on corruption, money laundering, and other illicit financial flows. A first promising research agenda thus concerns measures of corruption. New and carefully calibrated expert assessments allow for methodologically sound comparisons over time ( McMann et al. 2016 ). However, measures based on expert perceptions are no panacea. Empirical research can also benefit from creative ways to leverage objective and direct measures of corrupt behavior (for a special issue on this topic, see Mungiu-Pippidi 2016 ). Measurement is crucial not least because the Sustainable Development Goals include illicit financial flows as a phenomenon to be addressed.

Second, researchers trying to assess the impact of international efforts on the domestic quality of government should consider replicating and refining previous quantitative studies. This literature would benefit tremendously from a careful meta-analysis of how effects are conditioned by the choice of dependent variable, statistical techniques, range of covariates, timeframe under analysis, and regional variations. This call for careful stocktaking is closely linked to a third research objective: Qualitative case study evidence is necessary to probe the causal mechanisms driving statistical correlations. The effects of international anticorruption agreements most likely vary depending on the context, as illustrated by statistical analyses suggesting that preexisting corruption levels shape how governments respond to international commitments ( Hafner-Burton and Schneider 2019 ). To explore the scope conditions for different causal arguments, case studies should be designed to complement previous research.

Fourth, corruption is closely connected to other dimensions of the quality of government. It thus seems logical to draw parallels when it comes to the politics of implementation. Conceptually, anticorruption measures resemble international democracy promotion and human rights treaties, which also seek to shape domestic governance and legal structures in pursuit of universalist standards. Political scientists and legal scholars have studied the effects of these international regimes—including unintended consequences and shortcomings—for decades. Given that democracy and human rights precede anticorruption on the global agenda, they may provide inspiration for successful strategies (e.g., Sikkink 2017 ). At the same time, corruption is linked to international political economy. Curbing money laundering, for instance, is not that different from other types of financial standard-setting, while transnational bribery poses challenges of monitoring and enforcement similar to other unwanted business practices. Anticorruption research could benefit from exploring these conceptual and methodological parallels more systematically by drawing on multiple streams of literature.

Finally, future research could broaden the scope of inquiry by investigating how global and regional debates on anticorruption evolve. Overall, the quantity of commitments and institutional support for initiatives like UNCAC suggests that anticorruption has become a robust international norm, although some aspects remain contested ( Gutterman and Lohaus 2018 ). International efforts were propelled by the concerns of domestic actors—specifically American ones—and domestic enforcement, often including an element of extraterritoriality ( Gutterman 2019b ). Impending shifts in global leadership, most notably the rise of China and other emerging powers paired with the decline of U.S. hegemony, might thus alter the international anticorruption agenda. Assertive rising powers could seek to use anticorruption measures to crack down on political opponents. At the same time, critics of the status quo may hope that future initiatives change the long-standing notions of what is inside and outside of definitional boundaries. A shift in the discourse might, for example, put more emphasis on political corruption within the OECD world. Analyzing interference in elections, the influence of lobby groups, executive overreach, or the involvement of financial institutions in illicit transnational flows would open new avenues for considering the quality of government in the twenty-first century.

Abbott, Kenneth W. , and Duncan Snidal . 2002 . “ Values and Interests: International Legalization in the Fight Against Corruption. ” Journal of Legal Studies 31 (S1): 141–77. https://doi.org/10.1086/342006

Google Scholar

AIPC. 2017. “The Plunder Route to Panama: How African Oligarchs Steal from Their Countries.” https://www.zammagazine.com/images/pdf/documents/African_Oligarchs.pdf

Arnone, Marco , and Leonardo S. Borlini . 2014 . Corruption: Economic Analysis and International Law. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Google Preview

Bauhr, Monika , and Naghmeh Nasiritousi . 2012 . “ How Do International Organizations Promote Quality of Government? Contestation, Integration, and the Limits of IO Power. ” International Studies Review 14 (4): 541–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/misr.12009

Bean, Elise J.   2018 . Financial Exposure: Carl Levin’s Senate Investigations into Finance and Tax Abuse. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Börzel, Tanja A. , Andreas Stahn , and Yasemin Pamuk . 2010 . “ The European Union and the Fight Against Corruption in Its Near Abroad: Can It Make a Difference? ” Global Crime 11 (2): 122–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/17440571003669142

Broome, André , and Joel Quirk . 2015 . “ Governing the World at a Distance: The Practice of Global Benchmarking. ” Special Issue: The Politics of Numbers. Review of International Studies 41 (05): 819–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000340

Bukovansky, Mlada.   2006 . “ The Hollowness of Anti-Corruption Discourse. ” Review of International Political Economy 13 (2): 181–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290600625413

Busby, Joshua W. , and Kelly M. Greenhill . 2015 . “Ain’t That a Shame? Hypocrisy, Punishment, and Weak Actor Influence in International Politics.” In The Politics of Leverage in International Relations: Name, Shame, and Sanction , edited by Richard H. Friman , 105–22. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Buscaglia, Edgardo.   2011 . “On Best and Not so Good Practices for Addressing High-Level Corruption Worldwide: An Empirical Assessment.” In International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, Volume 2 , edited by Susan Rose-Ackerman and Tina Søreide , 453–77. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Carraro, Valentina , Thomas Conzelmann , and Hortense Jongen . 2019 . “ Fears of Peers? Explaining Peer and Public Shaming in Global Governance. ” Cooperation and Conflict 24 (4): 001083671881672. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836718816729

Chaikin, David , and J. C. Sharman . 2009 . Corruption and Money Laundering: A Symbiotic Relationship. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cole, W. M.   2015 . “ Institutionalizing a Global Anti-Corruption Regime: Perverse Effects on Country Outcomes, 1984–2012. ” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 56 (1): 53–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715215578885

Cooley, Alexander.   2018 . “How International Rankings Constitute and Limit Our Understanding of Global Governance Challenges: The Case of Corruption.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Indicators in Global Governance , edited by Debora Valentina Malito , Gaby Umbach , and Nehal Bhuta , 49–67. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cooley, Alexander , and J. C. Sharman . 2017 . “ Transnational Corruption and the Globalized Individual. ” Perspectives on Politics 15 (03): 732–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592717000937

Cooley, Alexander , and Jack Snyder , eds. 2015 . Ranking the World: Grading States as a Tool of Global Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Davis, Kevin E.   2012 . “ The Prospects for Anti-Corruption Law: Optimists Versus Skeptics. ” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 4 (02): 319–36. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1876404512000188

de Sousa, Luís.   2010 . “ Anti-Corruption Agencies Between Empowerment and Irrelevance. ” Crime, Law and Social Change 53 (1): 5–22.

Eigen, Peter.   2009 . “A Coalition to Combat Corruption: TI, EITI, and Civil Society.” In Corruption, Global Security, and World Order , edited by Robert I. Rotberg , 416–29. Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution Press.

Fenner Zinkernagel, Gretta , Charles Monteith , and Pedro Gomes Pereira , eds. 2013 . Emerging Trends in Asset Recovery. Bern: Peter Lang.

Forstater, Maya.   2018 . “Defining and Measuring Illicit Financial Flows.” In Global Governance to Combat Illicit Financial Flows: Measurement, Evaluation, Innovation , edited by Miles Kahler , Maya Forstater , Michael G. Findley , Jodi Vittori , Erica Westenberg , and Yaya J. Fanusie , 12–29. New York: Council on Foreign Relations International Institutions and Global Governance Program. https://www.cfr.org/report/global-governance-combat-illicit-financial-flows

Friman, H. Richard , ed. 2015 . The Politics of Leverage in International Relations: Name, Shame, and Sanction. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

George, Barbara C. , Kathleen A. Lacey , and Jutta Birmele . 1999 . “ On the Threshold of the Adoption of Global Antibribery Legislation: A Critical Analysis of Current Domestic and International Efforts Toward the Reduction of Business Corruption. ” Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 32 (1): 1–37.

Getz, Kathleen A.   2006 . “ The Effectiveness of Global Prohibition Regimes: Corruption and the Antibribery Convention. ” Business & Society 45 (3): 254–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650306286738

Gilbert, Jo-Anne , and Jason C. Sharman . 2016 . “ Turning a Blind Eye to Bribery: Explaining Failures to Comply with the International Anti-Corruption Regime. ” Political Studies 64 (1): 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12153

Global Witness . 2016. “Lowering the Bar: How American Lawyers Told Us How to Funnel Suspect Funds into the United States.” https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/18208/Lowering_the_Bar.pdf

Glynn, Patrick , Stephen J. Kobrin , and Moisés Naím . 1997 . “The Globalization of Corruption.” In Corruption and the Global Economy , edited by Kimberly Ann Elliott , 7–27. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.

Gray, Larissa , Kjetil Hansen , Pranvera Recica-Kirkbride , and Linnea Mills . 2014 . Few and Far: The Hard Facts on Stolen Asset Recovery. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Gutterman, Ellen.   2014 . “ The Legitimacy of Transnational NGOs. Lessons from the Experience of Transparency International in Germany and France. ” Review of International Studies 40 (2): 391–418. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210513000363

Gutterman, Ellen.   2015 . “ Easier Done Than Said: Transnational Bribery, Norm Resonance, and the Origins of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. ” Foreign Policy Analysis 11 (1): 109–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/fpa.12027

Gutterman, Ellen.   2017 . “ Poverty, Corruption, Trade, or Terrorism? Strategic Framing in the Politics of UK Anti-Bribery Compliance. ” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 19 (1): 152–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148116681731

Gutterman, Ellen.   2019 a. “ Banning Bribes Abroad: US Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Its Impact on the Global Governance of Corruption. ” European Political Science 18 (2): 205–16. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0153-z

Gutterman, Ellen.   2019 b. “Extraterritoriality as an Analytic Lens: Examining the Global Governance of Transnational Bribery and Corruption.” In the Extraterritoriality of Law: History, Theory, Politics , edited by Daniel S. Margolies , Umut Özsu , Maïa Pal , and Ntina Tzouvala. Abingdon , Oxon: Routledge.

Gutterman, Ellen , and Mathis Lohaus . 2018 . “What Is the ‘Anti-Corruption’ Norm in Global Politics?” In Corruption and Norms: Why Informal Rules Matter , edited by Ina Kubbe and Annika Engelbert , 241–68. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hafner-Burton, Emilie M. , and Christina J. Schneider . 2019 . “ The Dark Side of Cooperation: International Organizations and Member Corruption. ” International Studies Quarterly.   https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqz064

Hatchard, John.   2014 . Combating Corruption: Legal Approaches to Supporting Good Governance and Integrity in Africa. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Heimann, Fritz , Ádám Földes , and Sophia Coles . 2015. “Exporting Corruption. Progress Report 2015: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Convention on Combating Foreign Bribery”. Transparency International   https://www.transparency.org/en/publications/exporting-corruption-progress-report-2015-assessing-enforcement-of-the-oecd

Heywood, Paul M.   2017 . “ Rethinking Corruption: Hocus-Pocus, Locus and Focus. ” The Slavonic and East European Review 95 (1): 21. https://doi.org/10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.95.1.0021

Heywood, Paul M.   2018 . “ Combating Corruption in the Twenty-First Century: New Approaches. ” Daedalus 147 (3): 83–97. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00504

Heywood, Paul M. , and Jonathan Rose . 2014 . “ “Close but No Cigar”: The Measurement of Corruption. ” Journal of Public Policy 34 (3): 507–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X14000099

Hoven, Elisa.   2018 . Auslandsbestechung: Eine Rechtsdogmatische und Rechtstatsächliche Untersuchung. Neue Schriften zum Strafrecht 15. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft.

ICC. 2011. “ICC Rules on Combating Corruption: 2011 Edition.” https://iccwbo.org/publication/icc-rules-on-combating-corruption/

Jakobi, Anja P.   2013 . Common Goods and Evils? The Formation of Global Crime Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jensen, Nathan M. , and Edmund J. Malesky . 2018 . “ Nonstate Actors and Compliance with International Agreements: An Empirical Analysis of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. ” International Organization 72 (1): 33–69. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818317000443

Johnston, Michael.   2005 . Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Johnston, Michael.   2013 . “ More than Necessary, Less than Sufficient: Democratization and the Control of Corruption. ” Social Research 80 (4): 1237–58.

Johnston, Michael.   2014 . Corruption, Contention, and Reform: The Power of Deep Democratization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Johnston, Michael.   2018 . “ Reforming Reform: Revising the Anticorruption Playbook. ” Daedalus 147 (3): 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00502

Jongen, Hortense.   2018 . “ The Authority of Peer Reviews Among States in the Global Governance of Corruption. ” Review of International Political Economy 25 (6): 909–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2018.1512891

Joutsen, Matti , and Adam Graycar . 2012 . “ When Experts and Diplomats Agree: Negotiating Peer Review of the UN Convention Against Corruption. ” Global Governance 18: 425–39. https://doi.org/10.5555/1075-2846-17.4.425

Kaczmarek, Sarah C. , and Abraham L. Newman . 2011 . “ The Long Arm of the Law: Extraterritoriality and the National Implementation of Foreign Bribery Legislation. ” International Organization 65 (04): 745–70. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818311000270

Kahler, Miles.   2018 . “Countering Illicit Financial Flows: Expanding Agenda, Fragmented Governance.” In Global Governance to Combat Illicit Financial Flows: Measurement, Evaluation, Innovation , edited by Miles Kahler , Maya Forstater , Michael G. Findley , Jodi Vittori , Erica Westenberg , and Yaya J. Fanusie , 1–11. New York: Council on Foreign Relations International Institutions and Global Governance Program. https://www.cfr.org/report/global-governance-combat-illicit-financial-flows

Kartal, Mert.   2014 . “ Accounting for the Bad Apples: The EU’s Impact on National Corruption Before and After Accession. ” Journal of European Public Policy 21 (6): 941–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2014.910820

Katzarova, Elitza.   2019 . The Social Construction of Global Corruption: From Utopia to Neoliberalism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kelley, Judith G. , and Beth A. Simmons . 2015 . “ Politics by Number: Indicators as Social Pressure in International Relations. ” American Journal of Political Science 59 (1): 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12119

Knack, Stephen.   2007 . “ Measuring Corruption: A Critique of Indicators in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. ” Journal of Public Policy 27 (03). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X07000748

Kurer, Oskar.   2005 . “ Corruption: An Alternative Approach to Its Definition and Measurement. ” Political Studies 53 (1): 222–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00525.x

Lang, Bertram.   2018 . “ China’s Anti-Graft Campaign and International Anti-Corruption Norms: Towards a “New International Anti-Corruption Order ”?” Crime, Law and Social Change 70 (3): 331–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-017-9742-y

Leroy, Anne-Marie , and Frank Fariello . 2012. “The World Bank Group Sanctions Process and Its Recent Reforms.” Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/447971449169634017/Sanctions-Process.pdf

Lohaus, Mathis. 2019a. “Asset Recovery and Illicit Financial Flows from a Developmental Perspective: Concepts, Scope, and Potential.” U4 Issue 2019:12. http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-25404.2

Lohaus, Mathis.   2019 b. Towards a Global Consensus Against Corruption: International Agreements as Products of Diffusion and Signals of Commitment. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Löwenheim, Oded.   2008 . “ Examining the State: A Foucauldian Perspective on International ‘Governance Indicators’. ” Third World Quarterly 29 (2): 255–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590701806814

Lujala, Päivi , Siri Aas Rustad , and Philippe Le Billon . 2017. “Has the EITI Been Successful? Reviewing Evaluations of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.” U4 Brief August 2017:5.

Marong, Alhaji B.M.   2002 . “ Toward a Normative Consensus Against Corruption: Legal Effects of the Principles to Combat Corruption in Africa. ” Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 30 (2): 99–129.

Marquette, Heather. 2003. Corruption, Politics and Development: The Role of the World Bank . http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781403943736

McCoy, Jennifer L. , and Heather Heckel . 2001 . “ The Emergence of a Global Anti-Corruption Norm. ” International Politics 38 (1): 65–90.

McMann, Kelly , Daniel Pemstein , Brigitte Seim , Jan Teorell , and Staffan I. Lindberg . 2016. “Strategies of Validation: Assessing the Varieties of Democracy Corruption Data.” V-DEM Institute Working Paper Series 2016:23.

Merry, Sally Engle.   2018 . “Measuring the World: Indicators, Human Rights, and Global Governance.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Indicators in Global Governance , edited by Debora Valentina Malito , Gaby Umbach and Nehal Bhuta , 477–501. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Merry, Sally Engle , Kevin E. Davis , and Benedict Kingsbury , eds. 2015 . The Quiet Power of Indicators. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina.   2015 . The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina.   2016 . “ For a New Generation of Objective Indicators in Governance and Corruption Studies. ” Special Issue: Measuring Corruption In Europe And Beyond. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 22 (3): 363–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-016-9322-1

Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina , Masa Loncaric , Bianca Vaz Mundo , Sponza Braga , Ana Carolina , Michael Weinhardt , Angelica Pulido Solares , Aiste Skardziute et al. 2011. “Contextual Choices in Fighting Corruption: Lessons Learned.” Draft report commissioned by Norad, c/o ANKOR (the Anti-corruption Project) in cooperation with the Evaluation Department (“Contextual Choices for Results in Fighting Corruption“, Reference number: 1001232). Accessed on January 6, 2021. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2042021

Nance, Mark T.   2015 . “ Naming and Shaming in Financial Regulation: Explaining Variation in the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. ” In Friman 2015, 123–42.

OECD. 2017. “2016 Data on Enforcement of the Anti-Bribery Convention: Special Focus on International Co-Operation.” http://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/Anti-Bribery-Convention-Enforcement-Data-2016.pdf

Persson, Anna , Bo Rothstein , and Jan Teorell . 2012 . “ Why Anticorruption Reforms Fail. Systemic Corruption as a Collective Action Problem. ” Governance.   https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2012.01604.x

Pieth, Mark.   1997 . “International Cooperation to Combat Corruption.” In Corruption and the Global Economy , edited by Kimberly Ann Elliott , 119–31. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics.

Pieth, Mark , ed. 2008 . Recovering Stolen Assets. Bern: Peter Lang.

Quah, Jon S.T.   2018 . “ Combating Corruption in Asian Countries: Learning from Success & Failure. ” Daedalus 147 (3): 202–15. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00511

Reuter, Peter , ed. 2012 . Draining Development? Controlling Flows of Illicit Funds from Developing Countries. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Rose, Cecily.   2015 . International Anti-Corruption Norms: Their Creation and Influence on Domestic Legal Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rothstein, Bo , and Jan Teorell . 2008 . “ What Is Quality of Government? A Theory of Impartial Government Institutions. ” Governance 21 (2): 165–90.

Sampson, Steven.   2010 . “ The Anti-Corruption Industry: From Movement to Institution. ” Global Crime 11 (2): 261–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/17440571003669258

Sandholtz, Wayne , and Mark M. Gray . 2003 . “ International Integration and National Corruption. ” International Organization 57 (4): 761–800. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818303574045

Schroth, Peter W.   2005 . “ The United Nations Convention Against Doing Anything Serious About Corruption. ” Journal of Legal Studies in Business 12 (2): 1–22.

Seabrooke, Leonard , and Duncan Wigan . 2015 . “ How Activists Use Benchmarks: Reformist and Revolutionary Benchmarks for Global Economic Justice. ” Special Issue: The Politics of Numbers. Review of International Studies 41 (05): 887–904. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000376

Sharman, J. C.   2010 . “ Dysfunctional Policy Transfer in National Tax Blacklists. ” Governance 23 (4): 623–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2010.01501.x

Sharman, J. C.   2017 . The Despot’s Guide to Wealth Management: On the International Campaign Against Grand Corruption. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Shelley, Louise I.   2018 . “ Corruption & Illicit Trade. ” Daedalus 147 (3): 127–43. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00506

Sikkink, Kathryn.   2017 . Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Snider, Thomas R. , and Won Kidane . 2007 . “ Combating Corruption Through International Law in Africa: A Comparative Analysis. ” Cornell International Law Journal 40 (3): 691–748.

Søreide, Tina , Linda Gröning , and Rasmus Wandall . 2016 . “ An Efficient Anticorruption Sanctions Regime? The Case of the World Bank. ” Chicago Journal of International Law 16 (2): 523–52.

Sparling, Robert Alan.   2018 . “ Impartiality and the Definition of Corruption. ” Political Studies 66 (2): 376–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321717722360

Szarek-Mason, Patrycja.   2010 . The European Union’s Fight Against Corruption: The Evolving Policy Towards Member States and Candidate Countries. Cambridge Studies in European Law and Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tax Justice Network. 2018. “Financial Secrecy Index - 2018 Results.” Accessed January 30, 2018. https://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/introduction/fsi-2018-results

Transparency International. 2016. “Was It Worth It? Assessing Government Promises at the 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit.” Accessed on January 6, 2021. https://www.transparency.org/en/publications/assessing-government-promises-at-the-2016-anti-corruption-summit

UNODC. 2012. “TRAVAUX PRÉPARATOIRES of the Negotiations for the Elaboration of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption: Electronic Version Incl. The Corrigenda Issued in March and July 2012.” Accessed on January 6, 2021. http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/Publications/Travaux/Travaux_Preparatoires_-_UNCAC_E.pdf

UNODC. 2019. “TRACK Legal Library.” Accessed March 8, 2019. http://www.track.unodc.org/LegalLibrary/Pages/default.aspx

Urueña, René.   2018 . “Activism Through Numbers? The Corruption Perception Index and the Use of Indicators by Civil Society Organisations.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Indicators in Global Governance , edited by Debora Valentina Malito , Gaby Umbach , and Nehal Bhuta , 371–87. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

van Hüllen, Vera , and Tanja A. Börzel . 2015 . “Why Being Democratic Is Just Not Enough: The EU’s Governance Transfer.” In Governance Transfer by Regional Organizations: Patching Together a Global Script , edited by Tanja A. Börzel and Vera van Hüllen , 227–41. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Vogl, Frank.   2012 . Waging War on Corruption: Inside the Movement Fighting the Abuse of Power. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Wang, Hongying , and James N. Rosenau . 2001 . “Transparency International and Corruption as an Issue of Global Governance. ” Global Governance 7 (1): 25–49.

Weaver, Catherine.   2008 . Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Webb, Philippa.   2005 . “ The United Nations Convention Against Corruption: Global Achievement or Missed Opportunity? ” Journal of International Economic Law 8 (1): 191–229. https://doi.org/10.1093/jielaw/jgi009

Wedel, Janine R.   2015 . “ High Priests and the Gospel of Anti-Corruption. ” Challenge 58 (1): 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/01603477.2015.990831

Wolf, Mark L.   2018 . “ The World Needs an International Anti-Corruption Court. ” Daedalus 147 (3): 144–56. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_00507

Wolfensohn, James D. (1996): “People and Development”. Annual Meetings Address by James D. Wolfensohn, President. World Bank. Washington, D.C. Accessed January 6, 2021. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/135801467993234363

Wouters, Jan , Cedric Ryngaert , and Ann Sofie Cloots . 2013 . “ The International Legal Framework Against Corruption: Achievements and Challenges. ” Melbourne Journal of International Law 14 (1): 1–76.

The European Union stands out among regional organizations. Its dedicated anticorruption agreements are relatively narrow; at the same time, many rules concerning procurement and other standards of public administration and good governance are regulated in other parts of EU legislation.

See: www.opengovpartnership.org/policy-areas/ , www.openownership.org/ , www.bteam.org , and www.weforum.org/communities/partnering-against-corruption-initiative

The FATF was created in 1989 following a G-7 initiative to address money laundering. Its mandate has since been expanded to include measures against terrorist financing and corruption ( Kahler 2018 ).

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

• Skip to main content

This site belongs to UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning

• Codes of conduct
• Share on Twitter (New window)
• Share on Facebook (New window)
• Send by email

Robbed: an investigation of corruption in Philippine education

Author(s) : Chua, Yvonne T.

Organization : Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

Imprint : Quezon City (Philippines), PCIJ, 1999

Collation : 165 p.

Notes : Incl. glossary, tables

The Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) provides a classic case of corruption in the Philippines. Nearly all forms of corruption described in academic texts can be found in the department: from low-level bureaucratic corruption to high-level political corruption involving education officials, legislators, and Cabinet secretaries. The result in an education bureaucracy so ridden with graft that it is barely able to deliver the most basic educational services to the country's 15 million public school students.

• Corruption, Favoritism, Fraud, Fund leakage, Political corruption, Economic and social development, Educational management, Central administration, Governance, Procurement, Public sector, Quality assurance and accreditation, Students, Teachers, Teacher allocation, Teacher promotion, Teacher recruitment
• Asia and the Pacific Philippines

Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption Essay

Introduction, what is corruption, civil society’s role combating corruption, enhancing the role of the civil society in combating corruption, empowering the civil society organizations in their fight against corruption, the role of the media as part of civil society in fighting corruption, reference list.

This essay answer the question posed concerning the role of civil society in combating corruption. Corruption has been escalating at a high rate in many countries in the world. Various sectors and government agencies have embarked on the war to fight corruption. This is because of the harmful effects of corruption to individuals as well as the economy as a whole.

The civil society also has not lagged behind in fighting corruption. The civil society comprises of diverse groups but all have a role in fighting corruption in one way or another. These groups include citizens, religious organization groups, NGOs among others. As stakeholders in the quality of governance and institutions mediating between the government and the public, civil society plays a key role in fighting corruption.

At the country level as well as internationally, this statement is unchallenged. But what does it mean in practice? To what extent is the statement true? These are some of the question this paper addresses and go further in highlighting the nature of civil society involvement.

The first part of this essay defines what corruption is and highlights few causes of corruption. The second part of this paper explains how civil society has evolved giving more focus to the third world countries. It also highlights the various roles that the civil society can take to combat corruption. Initiatives taken to empower the civil society have also been highlighted including the role of the media.

In conclusion this essay acknowledges the fact that civil role has key roles to play in combating corruption and these roles should be enhanced.

According to Botchwey (2000), corruption is defined as the act of obtaining advantage via dubious means or means that are not legitimate immoral, and that are inconsistent with the rights of others or the duty of the perpetrator. Corruption also exists where people may apply public powers for their own or private gains. Corruption exists in our society and has always existed.

The act is evil and unacceptable and has many negative consequences. Corruption is an impediment factor to economic growth and may cause economic downturn where it is severe. Most of the democratic institutions like legal institutions have suffered or suffer most where corruption is prevalent.

Some of the gangrenous effects of corruption may include low supply of public goods and services, embezzlement of public funds, downgraded infrastructures among others. There factors are detrimental to economic growth and development and calls for immediate attention wherever they exist.

For war against corruption to be won, efforts must move beyond a narrow response to a broader approach of addressing its underlying causes (Al – Shuaibi, n.d). Dealing with these problems will require a multi-pronged strategy tailored to the specific pattern of corruption in each specific country.

Corruption impedes sustainable development which is key in the economic development of every country. Causes of corruption can be summarized as follows:

• The lack of political will to combat corruption at the leadership level;
• The weak judicial system and the absence of the rule of law;
• The weak parliamentary role;
• Incomplete rules and regulations and public monitoring;
• Weak media and inactive civil society.

The role of combating corruption should not be left to the official bodies and the legislative authority alone. Civil society should take an active role in enhancing and demanding democracy and human rights (OECD, 2003). They should commit themselves to the objectives of ensuring integrity and accountability in response to need for enhancing a system of good governance.

As highlighted earlier civil society include the no-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community based organizations (CBOs).Some are progressive while others are conservative. The community and the social organizations fight corruption through religion and humanitarian agencies that fight for human rights.

Together as a society they discourage vices such as dishonesty and bribery that characterize corruption. In deed these societies campaign for democracy.

These groups including professional bodies and business associations participate in the fight against corruption while conducting their civil roles. Reports from the third world countries indicate that civil society was in active (Bardhan, 1997). The reason for this is because it has been marginalized.

Although the ability to effectively scrap off corruption following independence has been narrow, the civil society has given recognizable contribution in the fight against corruption. Roles taken during this period include:

• Condemnation of official corruption by professional bodies, student and trade unions as part of protest against economic mismanagement by the government.
• Exhortations against corruption by religious organizations leaders. These include leaders from all religious circles.
• Too much focus on corruption scandals that have already been exposed by the political leaders in the opposition side of the government. In this case the media take the role of giving the issue much publicity.

The efforts raised above are considered to be reactive rather than been pro-active. They are inadequate in stemming out corruption and more pro-active actions should be devised by the civil society. An establishment of a more vibrant civil society is the way to ensure pro-active approach. Karkling (2005) in his arguments maintains that society has inspiration that is adequate to fight the vice.

Corrupt persons are likely to find their way out of the when it comes to the laws of the country. The government therefore needs support from the civil society in the campaign for a corruption free society ( Olabimpe and Sesan, 2006) This will ensure well founded initiatives that will check on the vice. Unless this is done the war against the vice will be lost.

The civil society is aware due to the changes that have occurred with increase in information. They are major actors in putting checks and balances in the political and socio-economic fields (Kidd & Richter, 2003). These factors include:

• There has been proliferation of democratic constitutions facilitated by some political openings. This has given a chance to the growth of human rights and association freedom; a factor that is crucial in the fight against corruption. This has been manifested by the surge of civil society in general. The indicators of this move include the chapters of Transparency International in Nigeria, Benin and Kenya among other countries. There are other improvements like environmental and human protection bodies that also acts as indicators.
• The growing emphasis of private sector towards economic development. Business associations and various representatives have kept the government on its toe towards implementing policies that create conducive environment for business.
• Technology improvement has made it easier to expose government officials that are corrupt. For instance, the existence of effective and efficient electronic and print media has been on the vanguard in this context.
• The emergence of well informed middle class and increase in the number of business people who reject the old system of nepotism and self dealing and instead engage in openness and fair dealing (Ralchev, 2004). They have the conviction that low corruption stimulates economic growth. More proactive roles include the following:

Creating public awareness about corruption

Most of the cases of corruption involve public and private officials. Civil society stands on a more neutral ground as an independent actor in combating corruption and representing the interest of the public at large.

In their research Noorjehan & Beagali (2008) found out that information on corruption can be obtained from statistical studies The publicity of information concerning the development of patterns and action plans has been enhanced seminars and conferences that are effective in creating awareness. This would be achieved by these organizations lobbying for the legislation of more strict rules on corruption.

Formulating and promoting actions plans to fight corruption

This involves lobbying for new laws that are geared towards combating corruption. Advocacy for institutional reforms, legal and judicial reforms, freedom of information as well as heavy penalties for the individuals or institutions found guilty of corruption.

There is also monitoring of actions and decisions of the government.

Various policies enacted by the government ensure that the will of the people guides the actions of public administrators. The expectations of the community are that they receive standardized public utilities. The public can actively participate in the formulation of laws that will regulate behavior.

This kind of supervision and oversight role ensure that the government or the state is accountable to its key roles and that it carries them out in a transparent manner.

The fact that corruption is real and that it hampers economic development, there has been the growing desire among domestic and transnational actors. Civil activism has been enhanced by the political liberalization that over the past decade has been improving becoming robust. The civil society and the non-government agencies have been pushing for good governance and low corruption. The question is how may this role be enhanced?

Mobilization of opinion against corruption and corrupt people

Civil society plays a key role in the national governance and therefore it is actively involved in the fight against corruption. In general, civil society and the media can create awareness on corruption and its damage on economic development.

Both groups can form a formidable force that can force the policy makers and the government to initiate reforms against corruption. When involved in restructuring of state structures the public will Maintain a positive culture against corruption.

It is apparent that civil society, NGOs, trade unions and other such bodies have a chance of fighting corruption in the electoral systems through addressing the issue therein and facing out corrupt officials. The electoral system is a genuine facility that could effectively be used in voting out corrupt officials in the government and other sectors where it applies.

The community involvement and support to the organization formed to implement restriction give a successful outcome. The media has the potential of supporting the anti-corruption agencies in carrying out their duties through working closely with them in order to provide relevant information that would help the agencies identify the corrupt people.

This will ensure harmony between constitution and statutory promise as well as ensuring that the corrupt officials comply with the regulations set against them.

Several factors can be identified as limiting the development of a vibrant civil society and its involvement in combating corruption. Major limits will mostly come from the state. In certain countries, public rules limit basic civil rights and will impede the development of civil society organizations.

The lack of transparency of public operations and the limited access to critical information do not encourage the direct participation of citizens in the conduct of public affairs.

Citizens may also impose limits. In certain countries, citizens are ignorant on information in regards to the costs of corruption and the existence of several avenues available to them for fighting corruption. Citizens do not always understand the realisable personal gains they can get by fighting corruption. They therefore lack the motivation to be actively involved in eradicating the vice.

Lack of resources can also be a limit. Most of the civil society organizations have inadequate information and technical capacities required for pro-active actions rendering them inefficient in their fight against corruption. Previously these organization have been addressing environmental issues and basic human rights until more recently when they devised ways of engaging themselves in the war against corruption.

The effective functioning of the civil society must have an effective legal and regulatory framework that helps guide it’s functioning. Some aspects of such legal framework may include the basic human rights and freedom among others.

Such freedom would enable people to come together and form non-governmental organizations that would facilitate the fight against corruption. Empowering or strengthening the capacities of civil society organisations means to:

• Provide these organisations with information and expertise;
• Support training programmes;
• Contribute to the raising of funds; and
• Forge more partnerships between civil society actors.

Requirements for registering these non-governmental organisations should be reasonable and not bureaucratic. Government should support civil society by waiving taxations on them. Effectiveness of the civil society can be enhanced through access to information and knowledge (Bertram, 2005). Adequate funds raised for the civil society will attract well-educated and highly motivated people.

This ensures that the capacity of civil society in combating corruption is not comprised. The local groups have teamed up with international organization like Transparency International, or TI to fight corruption.

TI is a worldwide movement which helps in the fight against corruption and its stakeholders are those that against corruption. It is a non-governmental and non profit. TI’s has grown to the membership of more than 60 countries since its launch in 1993 and has membership in every continent in the world.

The civil society also gains more support in the area where there is great mobilization against corruption. The objective will be achieved through strengthening citizen support for the existing anti-corruption NGOs, and increase participation of other stake holders whose primary interest may not be necessarily the fight against corruption.

Publishing surveys that show how prices of basic commodity rises due to corruption should be a powerful tool in mobilising the public. Talking about the general damages of corruption is not good enough. Many countries like Pakistan have undertaken public awareness campaigns at the national, provincial and district level through schools and universities.

It has been logically argued that the fight against corruption could not be won without free media because of the role it plays in the whole process. The linkage between the media and fight against corruption is critical. Free media plays a significant role in the fight against corruption because it helps expose or uncover various hidden corrupt cases.

Though most of the countries have a free media, many factors still impede the efforts made by the media in their role towards fighting corruption. These factors may include corruption among the media itself, state control over media among others factors that hamper the functioning of media.

Media may also be inhibited in its role towards combating corruption by libel laws and intimidation. In some countries violence against journalists has resulted in strong self-censorship. Legal framework that guarantees freedom of expression forms the foundation of a vibrant media.

Freedom of information laws differs in some respects from one country to another. Journalists practicing in Turkmenistan are prohibited by the state to publish comments that connote corruption. However, the head of the state is immune from this law. Government monopolies on printing and television signal transmissions continue in many countries, creating pressures for self-censorship.

Media business is booming and can be a major industry but the partisan nature of the ownership structure continues to hamper its development and growth. An appropriate system of corporate governance within the media would ensure non-partisan participation by the media.

Allowing free entry, especially the foreign press that is non-partisan can also help mitigate the problem of “media capture”. Foreign media can help to create a highly competitive and diverse media culture.

Some countries mostly from Europe have made great strides in ensuring free press. Freedom of the press is highest in countries with the lowest levels of administrative corruption.

The fight against corruption is a multi-dimensional approach and it is evident that the civil society plays a significant role in the process. Statistics has it that there is no single agency that can win the bathe against corruption unless by partnering with other stakeholders.

This has happened in many developing world. Since the Civil society acts as a watchdog to the government and also defends the public interest, there is dire need to accord it the due support in the fight against corruption. The civil society should therefore be involved in the enactment of the anti-corruption laws as much as possible and also in their enforcement.

A well developed civil society will represent a wide variety of interests. Organizations with diverse organizational structures will view corruption from different perspectives which will bring together diverse view points to design a strategy and increase its chances of success.

To ensure that the measures taken are not politically biased, there should be more political will based on a broad support from various sources in the civil society. A variety of interests ensures that the anti-corruption initiatives taken meet the public interest.

The discussion clearly indicates that the civil society has an important role to play in the negotiation and in the implementation of government instruments against corruption. The contribution made by the civil society can never be underestimated.

Al – Shuaibi, A., n. d. The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Combating Corruption. Palestine: Palestinian Legislative Council

Bardhan, P., 1997. ”Corruption and Development: A review of issues, “. Journal of Economic Literature , 35 (1997)

Bertram, I., 2005. Fighting corruption in developing countries: strategies and analysis .

West Hartford: Kumarian Press Botchwey, K., 2000. Fighting corruption, promoting good governance. Durban: Commonwealth Secretariat

Karklins, R., 2005. The system made me do it: corruption in post-communist societies . New York: M.E. Sharpe

Kidd, J. & Richter, F., 2003. Fighting corruption in Asia: causes, effects and remedies . Geneva: World Scientific

Noorjehan N. & Belagali, H.V., 2008. Educational Philosophy of Dr. Zakir Husain . India: Global Vision Publishing.

OECD., 2003. Fighting Corruption : What Role for Civil Society? Canada: OECD

Olabimpe, B. Sesan, A., 2006. Fighting corruption in Nigeria: challenges for the future. Kampala: Fountain Publications Limited

Ralchev, P., 2004. The role of civil society in fighting corruption and organized crime in Southeast Europe. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies , Volume 4, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 325 – 331

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, January 4). Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption. https://ivypanda.com/essays/civil-society-role-in-combating-corruption-essay/

"Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption." IvyPanda , 4 Jan. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/civil-society-role-in-combating-corruption-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption'. 4 January.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption." January 4, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/civil-society-role-in-combating-corruption-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption." January 4, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/civil-society-role-in-combating-corruption-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Civil Society Role in Combating Corruption." January 4, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/civil-society-role-in-combating-corruption-essay/.

• Gender Studies: Combating Domestic Violence
• Combating Gender Inequality
• Global Poverty: Ways of Combating
• Corruption in Arbitration in the United Arab Emirates
• Role of Frontex in Combating Illegal Immigration in the European Union Territory
• Anti-Corruption Strategies in Kazakhstan
• The Problem of Corruption in Government
• Current Hurdles in Combating Terrorism
• Combating Commodity Price Volatility In Australia
• Combating Human Trafficking in the USA
• The Social Role of Higher Education in UK
• Literacy Development in Adults
• Class and Culture
• Prudential Creative Communication
• Neighborhood Diversity