Rethinking Corruption in an Age of Ambiguity

The central premise of the article is that the assumptions and approaches of the “anticorruption industry” that debuted in the 1990s framed the issue of corruption and substantially shaped scholarly inquiry on the subject. These assumptions and approaches also limited the ability to see other forms and patterns of corruption on the horizon. This article (a) critically reviews prevailing assumptions and approaches to the study of corruption during and especially after the Cold War, (b) examines the impact of economic frameworks and the anticorruption industry on post–Cold War scholarship, (c) explores contemporary forms of potential corruption, (d) argues that prevailing approaches to corruption may make it more difficult to see contemporary forms of the age-old phenomenon and are ill-equipped to study them, (e) considers how corruption might be reconceptualized to encompass the new forms, and (f) argues for a reintegration of ethics and accountability.