Perceptions of corruption and their relevance to anti-corruption measures : Research findings of the EU-Project 'Crime and Culture'

Abstract

The article aims at presenting summary results and main insights on perceptions of corruption elaborated within the EU-research project ‘Crime and Culture’ (Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission, 2006-2009). In order to optimise corruption prevention in the European Union, policymakers should pay closer attention to how corruption is viewed in individual member states and candidate countries. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is unlikely to be effective. Instead, prevention policies should be adapted to fit prevailing socio-cultural conditions and take into account how such policies are perceived in daily practice. Efforts to encourage rule-conforming behaviour should be viewed as evolutionary learning processes. The article identifies, first of all, patterns of perception and interpretation of corruption in seven countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Greece, Germany and the United Kingdom. In a second step, these countries are grouped into three representative clusters: Germany and Great Britain, representing modern western European societies (democracy, rule of law, market economy), Greece and Turkey, representing partially modernised countries with a paternalistic state, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, representing post-socialist transformation countries. Therein, cluster analysis is oriented to common patterns of perceptions of corruption between countries as well as to the particular ‘paths of modernity’ of the single countries. Against this background the article finally sets the frame within which policy suggestions could be formulated.