ABSTRACT
Venturing into an issue as complex as the causes of political corruption opens up a number of intricate problems, not least since, as stated by Huberts, ‘corruption and causation are among the most contested concepts’ (2010: 146). The problems can be divided along three analytical dimensions. The first is whether we should operate with a universal understanding of corruption or consider it a problem that is culturally or temporally specific. This also relates to how we understand the opposite of corruption. Is ‘clean’ government a universal or a culturally specific entity, and, if specific, how many variations can exist, and of what type? Understanding and explaining the causes of corruption is not only an academic issue but has a ‘policy-relevant’ dimension. If we want to minimise corruption, what alternative state should we wish for?
