The anti-corruption narrative in a polarised world

We are living in a world where political polarisation has become an issue in many countries impeding a constructive dialogue around the real challenges that we are facing. Instead, promoting distrust and the delegitimisation of public institutions have become tools to gaining elections.?

Unfortunately, the corruption narrative appears sometimes to have become an instrument for this dark road to political power and sometimes seems to be contributing to further dividing our societies.

Yes, the "C-word" was a taboo for many years before it became possible to talk about it. It was a victory of the anti-corruption movement to put the issue in the spotlight as one of the main barriers to sustainable and fair growth and to democratic governance. The International Anti-Corruption Day reflects this achievement.

Today, however, it seems as if the anti-corruption discourse is backfiring. Hearing from politicians that the government, the judiciary or the legislative are "corrupt" (whether true or not), further undermines our trust in these public institutions.?Has the anti-corruption narrative become corrupted and may be involuntarily contributing to undermining trust in our democratic institutions and societies?

A growing body of research findings are providing queues that support this idea. For example, awareness raising campaigns on corruption can backfire and trigger unethical practices by helping to normalise and rationalise corruption (1). Transparency around corruption without visible consequences can lead to resignation, political apathy and cynicism, particularly in environments with already high levels of perceived corruption (2). The corruption narrative also can contribute to undermining our trust in our fellow citizens: while research shows that the vast majority of people are honest and follow a moral compass (3), we often tend to believe that most people would be dishonest if they have the opportunity to gain some undue advantage.

All this has policy implications. Considering these and other findings is more relevant than ever.?Years ago, based on research from behavioural sciences, Johann Lambsdorff wrote about fighting corruption by promoting trust (4). Yuvel Feldman's book "The Law of Good People" is exploring implications of such findings from behavioural ethics for law making (5). The OECD report on "Behavioural Insights for Public Integrity" is also contributing to make us rethink some of the more traditional anti-corruption policies and to making integrity policies more effective (6). Since, the OECD supported countries on applying this perspective to corruption risk management (7), integrity leadership (8) and external audit (9).

Don't get me wrong: Corruption continues to be an issue, we need to get better at detecting, investigating and sanctioning corruption. We are also far away from having addressed many of the systemic underlying root causes that make corrupt practices possible. For this, we also need to unpack "corruption" into its many different practices and dimensions.

But I truly believe that we could gain a lot if we would not talk and think only of the corrupt when discussing and designing anti-corruption policies. Rather, let's talk and think more about the vast majority of "normal" public servants, managers and citizens. True, we all commit errors and our moral compass may at times go astray, but most of us are not criminals.

Similar to what Rutger Bregman wrote in his book "Humankind: A Hopeful History" (10), such a positive view on humans may sound naive to many people, but it is based on evidence: We are, overall, not that bad.

In fact, such a more positive approach is not new. Since 1998, the OECD Recommendation?on Improving Ethical Conduct in the Public Service shifted the focus away from corruption. Later, the 1998 Recommendation was revised and the OECD adopted in 2017 the Recommendation on Public Integrity. Now, the OECD Public Integrity Indicators are measuring key dimensions of this Recommendation and further help to provide a positive, constructive and evidence-based dialogue on what really matters to preventing and fighting corruption more effectively

At the same time, we might take away ammunition from those who hijack the corruption narrative to sow distrust and polarisation.

Disclaimer

I wrote this opinion in my personal capacity. The opinions reflected here do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or its member countries.

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References

(1) E.g. Corbacho et al ?(2016),?Corruption as a self-ful?lling prophecy: Evidence from a survey experiment in Costa Rica, American Journal of Political Science, 60(4),p. 1077–92 or Peiffer (2018), Message Received? Experimental Findings on How Messages about Corruption Shape Perceptions.?British Journal of Political Science,?50(3), p. 1207-1215.

(2) Bauhr and Grimes (2013), Indignation or Resignation: The Implications of Transparency for Societal Accountability, Governance 27(2),?p. 291-320

(3) E.g. Cohn et al (2019): Civic honesty around the globe. Science 365(6448), 70-73

(4) Lambsdorff, Johann (2015) : Preventing corruption by promoting trust: Insights from behavioral science, Passauer Diskussionspapiere - Volkswirtschaftliche Reihe, No. V-69-15, Universit?t Passau

(5) Feldman (2018),?The Law of Good People: Challenging States' Ability to Regulate Human Behavior, Cambridge University Press

(6) OECD (2018),?Behavioural Insights for Public Integrity: Harnessing the Human Factor to Counter Corruption, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris

(7) OECD (2023), Promoting Corruption Risk Management Methodology in Romania: Applying?Behavioural Insights to Public Integrity, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing,?Paris and OECD (2024), Improving Corruption Risk Management in the Slovak Republic: Results from a?2023 Experiment in Applying Behavioural Insights to Public Integrity, OECD Public?Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris

(8) OECD (2023), Strengthening Integrity Leadership in Brazil’s Federal Public Administration:?Applying Behavioural Insights for Public Integrity, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD?Publishing, Paris

(9) OECD (2022), Enhancing the Oversight Impact of Chile’s Supreme Audit Institution: Applying?Behavioural Insights for Public Integrity, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing,?Paris

(10) Bregman (2020), Humankind: A Hopeful History, ?Bloomsbury