A Critique of the International Anti-Corruption Debate: Lessons From El Salvador and Pakistan

Abstract

Corruption is an age-old problem that affects every society, government, and institution. In recent decades it has received considerable attention from scholars, development experts, and global policy-makers, and anti-corruption reforms now exist in nearly every country in the world. Unfortunately, decades of research and activism have created a proliferation of data and policy prescriptions that continue to follow a set of narrow, misguided assumptions about the causes and consequences of this serious problem. This is a critique of the perspective that has dominated the international anti-corruption debate. Building upon comparative research conducted in El Salvador and Pakistan, this thesis sheds light on how these narrow-minded assumptions lead to misguided and ineffective anti-corruption efforts in two distinct regions of the world.