Corruption in ‘Developing’ Contexts? Challenging Universalist Frameworks and Emphasizing Local Agency: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Corruption is a global governance challenge, yet dominant approaches to its study and prevention remain shaped by frameworks that often privilege standardized definitions and reform models developed in the Global North. This two-part special issue examines what becomes visible when corruption and anti-corruption are approached through diverse political, historical, and institutional contexts, with particular attention to knowledge and experiences emerging from the Global South. Bringing together interdisciplinary contributions across multiple regions, the issue challenges universalist assumptions while resisting the opposite tendency to treat corruption as entirely context-specific. The articles foreground local agency and methodological reflexivity, showing how corruption and anti-corruption are negotiated through histories of state formation, unequal power relations, and everyday governance. Collectively, the special issue argues for a reorientation of corruption studies that treats the Global South not merely as a site of empirical investigation, but as a source of theory and conceptual innovation for understanding corruption globally.