CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

20 Syndromes of Corruption
A similar outlook is reflected in TI’s best-known publication – the
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). 1 The CPI is an annual ‘‘poll of
polls’’ in which results from varying numbers of surveys are averaged
into scores for well over 100 countries, rating the extent to which they
are seen as corrupt. Several of those component surveys specifically ask
respondents to judge the extent of bribery, or of demands for bribes, in a
country. Others sample international or domestic business people; some
ask recipients the extent to which corruption harms the business environment,
again framing the corruption issue in terms of bribery, business,
and markets. CPI scores, like all other single-score country-level indicators,
reduce potential qualitative differences to matters of degree while
obscuring contrasts within societies (Khan and Sundaram, 2000: 9–10;
Johnston, 2001a).
What is wrong with this picture? Certainly not that these reports or the
CPI draw upon bad ideas; nor is it that every case or country requires a
unique policy or theory (although understanding the significance of what
they have in common would seem to require more attention to contrasting
cases). In some cases the organizations sponsoring these documents
are restricted as to the in-country issues they may address. On the plus
side, USAID has amassed significant anti-corruption capacity, and the
OECD Anti-Bribery Treaty is a landmark achievement. The CPI, like TI
and its many national chapters, has helped make corruption a priority
issue in places where those in power would rather it be ignored. TI
carefully documents the sources and methodology of the CPI 2
(Lambsdorff, 1999), is candid about the index’s limitations, and in any
event is not responsible for the ways the data are used by others. CPI
results do fit in expected ways with other development measures, giving
them significant construct validity, and there is little reason to think that
the overall rankings are radically wrong. Indeed, I will make limited use of
the CPI later on in this book.
The problems, instead, are those of worldview and analysis. As the
overall emphasis on international business might lead us to expect, ‘‘corruption’’
is too often treated as a synonym for ‘‘bribery’’ – in effect, as a
particular kind of quid pro quo set apart by its illegitimate nature but
otherwise open to analysis as just another process of exchange. Bribery,
particularly when viewed broadly enough to include extortion (where an
official demands payment), probably is the most common form of corruption;
it is certainly the easiest kind to model. But nepotism, official
theft and fraud, and conflict-of-interest problems, for example, do not fit
1 Available at http://www.transparency.org/cpi/.
2 See http://www.transparency.org/cpi/index.html#cpi.