ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the conceptual issues associated with the definition of corruption and the associated difficulties in the development of appropriate measurements for the incidence and seriousness of political corruption. There are four commonly recognised methodological problems posed by existing corruption measures. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) employs a ten-point scale to one decimal place, across a range of different indicators. This has already been the subject of serious reservations in the academic community, reservations which Transparency International (TI) itself shares to some degree. Council of Europe GRECO reports, the reports to be produced under the Organisation of Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on the Anti-Bribery Convention, and the in-depth country specific reports of organisations. The organisations like the World Bank, TI and OSI, provide a substantial amount of material in which judgments about corruption, its seriousness and its incidence are made.
