Liberalization and the New Corruption?

Edited by: Barbara Harriss-White and Gordon White

May 1996
Volume 27 Number 2

While there is a widely-accepted thesis that economic liberalization and/or political democratization can reduce levels of corruption in developing societies, recent experience suggests that the relationship is variable and in some contexts corruption may increase in consequence. The contributors to this Bulletin examine the relationship between corruption and economic/political liberalization across a wide range of countries and draw implications for designing feasible anti-corruption measures as part of the wider agenda of improving the quality of governance.