Corruption vanishes from the radar

There used to be tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of researchers on this subject in academic, national and international bodies. Punch "bibliograhies of anti-corruption" into google and you will be amazed at the number you will find.

Here are a couple of recent ones – first one focusing on developing countries and then a 2022 one from the UK Centre for the Study of Corruption

I've had a file on the subject for the past couple of decades – but, in the last few days, I've 

downloaded another hundred papers and a fair number of books. Much of the literature, 

however, suffers from three fundamental problems -

• few in the West considered – until very recently - that this was a problem for their 

societies – it was rather something affecting developing or ex-communsi countries. 

The policy-makers therefore had no real interest in the discussion or outcome – was seen instead as an academic issue

• most of the literature is addressed to academics – not to the general public. As a whole, 

therefore, it doesn’t explore the causes or possible solutions in a manner accessible to 

the citizen  

• most of the literature was based on a false theory -  as usual one influenced by economists 

who have a perverse view of human nature. They assume that we are calculating machines 

– always measuring costs and benefits and making rational decisions. Here is how I traced the approach of various disciplines a few years ago

How Corruption is treated by the various academic disciplines…..

Discipline	Core assumption
Sociology	Struggle for power
Economics	Rational choice
Political science	Rational choice (at least since the 1970s)
Geography	Factors such aș contiguity, latitude, natural barriers and culture affect development
Public management	Mix of economics, politics and sociology
Anthropology	shared meaning, myths
Political economy	draws upon economics, political science, law, history, sociology et al to explain how political factors determine economic outcomes.
Psychology	Self-image, sexual drive, mythology

Anthropology (and sociology) emerge from this as the most useful disciplines. 

And this is demonstrated in their approach to the issue in such books as -

Corruption – anthropological perspectives edited by D Haller and C Shore (2005) 

useful collection of case studies
Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy; Janine R. Wedel 

2009. Another anthropologist’s take
Confronting Corruption, building accountability – lessons from the world of international development 

advising L Dumas, J Wedel and G Callman (2010)

Corruption – a very short introduction L Holmes 2015 a rather disappointing overview

Unaccountable – how anti-corruption watchdogs and lobbyists sabotaged america’s finance, 

freedom and security ; J Wedel (2016) 

Making Sense of Corruption Bo Rothstein (2017) one of the clearest expositions – 

this time by a Scandinavian political scientist

comment from Patrick Cockburn on the corruption of the British political class

And the world seems to have lost interest recently in the issue

A Corruption Resource
How the Council of Europe saw the problem a few years ago 
Readings on corruption and governance – a 2022 annotated bib
Why Corruption Matters (UK government 2015)
working papers from the UK centre for the study of corruption
How the UNDP saw the problem in 2004 
a very curious paper looking at the development of corruption strategies 
comabting corruption in the 21st century  heywood
Rethinking Corruption in an age of ambiguity 
Understanding Corruption and how to curb it 2021 
analysing the AC strategies of the 26 top-ranked countries - 2018