Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited. Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenge of Corruption

While there is increasing awareness of corruption, as well as an interest in curtailing it, there has been no systematic research on questions relating to the transition of particularistic societies towards those characterised by ethical universalism. The main aim of ANTICORRP is therefore to align different concepts and insights through interdisciplinary research. Existing research gaps shall be addressed by a comparison of EU countries’ trajectories with neighbouring states and a global sample of countries. In this framework, the GIGA project comparatively analyses country cases in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East and studies patterns and trends of corruption within each of the four regions.

In a first step governance regimes worldwide were diagnosed, using well known indicators of good governance and corruption. Based on this large-N quantitative study, countries were identified that were successful in reducing corruption and the respective countries´ trajectories were analysed in more detail. Based on these case studies, the most effective countries in fighting corruption were selected for more in-depth process tracing. Being situated in different world regions, their comparison aided in discovering and explaining intra- and inter-regional variation to gain a better understanding of why various societies developed different equilibria of political accountability and control of corruption. In a second step that has started in the fall of 2014, four cases situated in Africa and North Africa were selected to explore the intersection between EU assistance and development. The specific focus is on the effectiveness of EU aid in promoting good governance and the fight against corruption.