When Knowledge Takes the Lead: Perceptions of Democratic Norms and Tolerance of Corruption

Corruption is often defined as a deviant conduct from established legal and formal norms and expected ways of behaving. Readiness to accept or condone these deviant conducts will hinge primarily upon the evaluator’s awareness and understanding of what those standards are. This means that citizens’ willingness to accept corruption as something “normal” to the functioning of democracy or “beneficial” to economic development, is likely to be affected by how knowledgeable they are of the ethical standards governing the exercise of duties and the discharge of responsibilities. So, we question to what extent citizens’ knowledge of official ethical standards affect their tolerance towards corruption? Based on new individual level data collected from six focus groups we show a negative association between the appropriate knowledge of official ethical standards and tolerance towards corruption. Participants with academic knowledge on the topic of corruption were more willing to relativize the economic and political effects of corruption than senior participants, with practical knowledge on these issues, deriving from their former professional experience. This study contributes to the understanding of the resilience of corruption in democracy by associating its perceived economic and political effects to attitudes toward democratic norms.