The consolidation of a global anticorruption regime rests on a combination of international policy instruments, ideologies about good and bad governance, as well as promises, programmes and practices intended to reduce corruption. After nearly two decades, we can give this assemblage a name: Anticorruptionism. This paper reviews the history of anticorruptionism and the current status of the anticorruption project in Southeast Europe. It focuses on whether anticorruptionism has played any role in affecting, let alone reducing, corruption in Southeast Europe. Secondly, a critical approach is developed that sees anticorruption as part of a larger strategy connected with neoliberalism, market accommodation and new public management. Corruption and anticorruption, instead of being a zero-sum game, operate in two parallel worlds. Thus, instead of seeing corruption as a cause/symptom of bad governance, this paper focuses on ‘anticorruptionism’ as a problem, using comparisons with the evolution of ‘civil society’, ‘development’ and ‘human rights’.
