The growth, spread and measurement of corruption

Abstract

The chapter explores the growing levels of academic concern with political corruption as an object of investigation since the early 1990s and at the problems involved in its measurement. It thus discusses why the topic was relatively neglected before the 1990s and why there has been growing interest in the phenomenon since then. It then considers the various difficulties involved in quantifying it. The issue is important since providing solutions to problems presupposes being able to analyse them, and analysis presupposes measurement. The two issues – measurement and the attention to corruption – are very much linked since one of the reasons for the relative neglect of the phenomenon until recent years has been precisely the difficulties involved in measuring it.