The Contested Definition of Corruption

Corruption is both a significant substantive problem for governance and an important political allegation. Nonetheless, judgements about whether an individual is corrupt or not inherently rely upon an understanding of the nature of corruption. However, extant measures of corruption make use of a variety of indicators that may cut across various definitions of corruption. This chapter finds that a different but conceptually plausible understanding of corruption would lead to different measurements of corruption in various countries. These changes can be substantively important. in a variety of circumstances.