Corruption and Social Norms ― Why Informal Rules Matter

This book focuses on the role of norms in the description, explanation, prediction and combat of corruption. It conceives corruption as a ubiquitous problem, constructed by specific traditions, values, norms and institutions. The chapters concentrate on the relationship between corruption and social as well as legal norms, providing comparative perspectives from different academic disciplines, theoretical and methodological backgrounds, and various country-studies. Due to the nature of social norms that are embedded in personal, local, and organizational contexts, the contributions in the volume focus in particular on the individual and institutional level of analysis (micro and meso-mechanisms). The book will be of interest to students and scholars across the fields of political science, public administration, socio-legal studies and psychology.

Ina Kubbe is Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University, Israel. She has published several books and articles on corruption related to democracy. Ina specializes in methodology and comparative research on empirical corruption, democracy and governance research as well as political psychology. She is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network and currently researching on the norms of values of the Israeli and Palestinian society related to the conflict.

Annika Engelbert is Post-Doctoral Researcher at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, working at the intersection of law and social sciences on human rights and administrative law issues in developing countries. Annika has published several books and articles on corruption in public administration in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network and currently researches human rights-based approaches to social health protection.