Thomas D. Lancaster is associate professor of political science at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. His research and teaching interests include comparative politics, with a specialization in western and southern European politics, and the logic of comparative political inquiry. Gabriella R. Montinola is assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. Her current research focuses on economic development, interest representation, and the causes and consequences of political corruption. She is the author or co-author of articles in various journals, including World Politics, Journal of Democracy, and British Journal of Political Science. Studies in Comparative International Development, Fall 2001, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 3–28. Comparative Political Corruption: Issues of Operationalization and Measurement* Thomas D. Lancaster and Gabriella R. Montinola As with other areas of comparative political inquiry, analyses of political corrup- tion must carefully negotiate around numerous methodological issues. In this ar- ticle, we focus primarily on problems of operationalization and measurement of corruption. We evaluate the major examples of cross-country measures of corrup- tion that have recently emerged and review research that has incorporated the new measures. We end with a discussion of an alternative method for the cross-national measurement and analysis of corruption, one that might also facilitate the goal of establishing universal principles and causal claims about political corruption. Introduction A s with other areas of comparative political inquiry, analyses of political corruption must carefully negotiate around numerous methodological is- sues. In this article, we highlight some critical methodological obstacles in the comparative study of political corruption and suggest ways in which they may be addressed. We focus primarily on issues of operationalization and measure- ment. 1 First, we begin with a survey of the two generic approaches to com- parative political inquiry: case-oriented and variable-oriented research. Second, we discuss problems regarding the operationalization of corruption. Third, we present the major recent examples of measures that are proving to be useful to researchers. Fourth, we consider two problems in the measurement of corrup- tion: reduction of the phenomenon in a single country to a single measure, and
Comparative Political Corruption: Issues of Operationalization and Measurement
Jul 06, 2023
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