Chapter 12 Curbing Corruption: An Impossible Dream?

The negative consequences of corruption for a country's development have been identified in Chapter 1. Corruption is ubiquitous and is found in “all political systems, at every level of government, and in the delivery of all scarce public goods and services” ( Caiden, 1988, p. 6 ). Corruption is a universal problem, and governments all over the world have introduced measures to tackle this “social pandemic” which has “many faces” and is “the most challenging obstacle to economic development” ( Campos & Bhargava, 2007, pp. 1–2 ).