Integrity and Corruption: Conceptual Challenges

Abstract

Corruption is one of the most important obstacles to economic development and accountability, as it undermines effective governance and erodes trust in institutions. How can we pursue governance practices that go beyond simply addressing corruption? Integrity could be the answer. Although corruption and integrity have been often used as the antonyms of each other, related to ethics (or the lack of it, in the case of corruption) and also seen as determinants of good governance, the literature has generally lacked conceptual, comparative and evaluative dimensions of integrity and that would assist us in assessing them both and how they are related to each other. This is not to say that there have not been different attempts to encapsulate the concept of corruption and integrity with different tools. None of these attempts, however, seem to be entirely satisfactory or encompass all the nuances of these two complex concepts. In addition, there has been a real imbalance in the attention paid to conceptualising corruption compared to the attention paid to integrity: indeed, there is a vast literature that looks at the former, compared to relatively little (particularly in the fields of comparative social science) on the latter. Corruption and integrity can be seen as crucial distinct concepts for an understanding of governance in both public and private sectors. So how to conceptualise integrity? Should it be analysed through an individual approach or an institutional one? Is it appropriate (or helpful) to view integrity and corruption as antonyms? Why has integrity attracted relatively little attention compared to corruption? Where should integrity be seen as properly residing (ie. at what level, sector – individual, organisation, public, private, local, national)? Which are, and how can we measure, the very broad range of beliefs and practices that encompasses these two concepts? What characterises the integrity of a person, functionary, or organisation? What makes corruption a ubiquitous and persistent phenomenon, notwithstanding the fact that it occurs at different levels depending on the time and place? This panel aims to discuss the links between conceptual understanding and practical application of integrity contrasting it with corruption. We welcome comparative and single case papers addressing the topic from different perspectives and lines of thoughts and also with both theoretical as well as empirical approach.

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