Unbundling Corruption: Revisiting Six Questions on Corruption

Abstract

Corruption is conventionally measured in global indices as a one-dimensional
problem—one score for every country—a practice that has profoundly shaped our
conceptualization of corruption and its relationship with capitalism. What if we
unbundle corruption into qualitatively distinct types and then measure them across
countries? How will this approach change our understanding of corruption? This
review article serves two purposes. First, it introduces a new framework for
“unbundling corruption” into four varieties and highlights their differential
economic effects. Based on this typology, I piloted a new cross-national measure of
these four varieties of corruption in fifteen countries, using an expert, perceptionbased
survey—the Unbundled Corruption Index (UCI). Second, I review six questions
on corruption through the lens of unbundling corruption. Shifting our focus of
corruption from its aggregated quantity to its quality not only changes our responses
to commonly asked questions about corruption, it also prompts new questions.

Keywords: corruption, bribery, capitalism, economic growth, governance, measures