This article will examine the evolution of corruption research and the practical application of its findings in international development policy over the past five decades. The interaction between corruption and development has been a core topic of inquiry for both researchers and policy makers since the formulation of classic modernization theory in the 1950s and 1960s. When classic modernization theory emerged in the 1950s, corruption was primarily condemned on moralistic grounds and measures to combat it were seen as conducive to the rationalization of societies. In the 1960s, a new strand of research called the condemnation of corruption into question by pointing to cases in which the benefits of corruption outweighed the costs. The proponents of this view argued that corruption may allow firms to get things done by circumventing red tape and inefficient institutions. Over the following decades, however, evidence mounted that corruption constituted an impediment of development rather than an enabler. A widespread view in the 1980s and early 1990s was that opportunities for corruption would diminish with economic liberalization and downsizing the state. Accordingly, anti-corruption found its way of expression in the rationalization of governments during that time. Evolving views on the nature of corruption and its consequences have led to the rise and fall of paradigms that shaped corruption research and policy over the years. The analysis will distill hypotheses about the most influential factors in determining the theories of change adopted by the international anti-corruption regime.
