Why transparency doesn’t always reduce corruption
The conventional wisdom among government reformers is that transparency is a crucial device for improving accountability and reducing corruption. But the device doesn’t always work. In the current issue of Governance, Monika Bauhr and Marcia Grimes of the University of Gothenburg show that an increase in transparency in highly corrupt countries tends to breed resignation, rather than indignation over corruption. Bauhr and Grimes explain how our understanding of the link between transparency and corruption control “remains more anchored in normative conviction . . . than empirical investigation.” Read the article.
