European Paths to Control of Corruption

With the adoption of United Nations Convention against Corruption most states around the world, both new and old, have come to subscribe to a norm based on the classical European intellectual heritage: the doctrine of ethical universalism in public life. Thus far, Europeans have also enjoyed the most success in containing corruption, alongside a group of former colonies populated mostly by Europeans (e.g. the United States, Commonwealth countries) and a handful of other countries (Japan, Chile, Singapore, a couple of tiny Asian monarchies) whose designs are mostly of European inspiration. European control of corruption can thus be regarded as the only historically successful process of state building in which a long transition to ethical universalism has resulted in an equilibrium where opportunities for corruption are largely checked by control of society over rulers and a reasonable reciprocal control by the government.  While this evolution cannot easily be separated from the general European advancement to accountability in government and rule of law, it is of interest for the current anticorruption community of scholars and practitioners to understand why, how and when ethical universalism as a governance norm and good governance as its practical application managed to take root in European history.