From Petty Corruption to Criminal State: A Critique of the Corruption Perceptions Index as Applied to the Post-Communist Region

Offering a decent database easily applicable to cross-country comparison, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has been widely used as a variable for showing the level of corruption. However, surveys of its sources are based on presumptions which mainly apply to bottom-up...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Intersections 2019-01, Vol.5 (2), p.103-129
Main Authors: Madlovics, Bálint, Magyar, Bálint
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Corruption - Transparency - Anti-Corruption
Corruption in government
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Summary:Offering a decent database easily applicable to cross-country comparison, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has been widely used as a variable for showing the level of corruption. However, surveys of its sources are based on presumptions which mainly apply to bottom-up forms of corruption, namely free market corruption and bottom-up state capture, and therefore it is insufficient for assessing the state of a country plagued by top-down types of the former. We provide an analytical framework that distinguishes four levels of corruption and draws on the experience of the post-communist region. Using this framework to analyze the CPI’s survey questions, we explain why the index provides a blurred picture of the region. ‘Big data’ evidence for top-down corruption in Hungary is also presented, signifying the need for a more refined index.
ISSN:2416-089X
DOI:10.17356/ieejsp.v5i2.504