Forestalling Transnational Corruption

Transparency International (TI), a civic transnational NGO, publishes annual “Global Corruption Barometer”. The index focuses on “How citizens of each country perceive/experience corruption”. For this year’s report (ostensibly unchanged from earlier reporting) regardless of political, social and economic variations, corruption persists in all societies. While Scandinavians qualify among the least corrupted, the report classifies some African societies among the most corrupt[i]. Comparatively, Scandinavia maintains sophisticated social contracts, higher trust among citizens as well as functioning local and national public institutions with diverse embedded accountabilities. It is thus a challenge in itself to place a joint perception index on people in prosperous regions of the world with people who daily struggle with civil wars and persecutions.

In addition, TI’s unidimensional account misses the perceptions of people who might simultaneously belong to two or multiple societies under the currently prevailing transnational connections. Similar to other governmental and non-governmental organizations (that often engage, monitor and report global developments) TI’s analysis departs from the traditional theoretical geographic based distinction of local, national and international spaces. The assumption underlying such earlier metaphorical perception accounts for a world system divided into a core, semi-periphery and peripheral entities[ii]. Rather with increased digitalization, virtual connections and mobility, the current world appears more complicated. The local, the national and the transnational, more or less formally and informally in accordant, seem socially, economically and politically connected. For instance, if invited or allowed (sometimes even without permission) people can participate in actions and interactions taking place far way corners of the world