TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– The paper aims to examine how the measurement of African “corruption” has been manipulated to serve western economic interests.Design/methodology/approach– In depth secondary source analysis within a post‐colonial framework.Findings– The most popular measure of corruption, Transparency International's corruption perception index (CPI), is a flawed instrument. Capable only of calculating proxies of corruption, the measure is oblivious to cultural variance and is business‐centric in style. The CPI is embraced in good faith by African governments and donor organisations oblivious to its deeper purpose of serving western economic and geo‐political interests under the guise of weeding out something falsely portrayed as a universal negative.Practical implications– The paper will assist efforts to ground the anti‐corruption effort in the realities of Africa.Originality/value– The paper is part of a minority scholarship that seeks to provide space for the consideration of alternatives to the dominant conceptions of corruption and its measurement.
VL  - 21
IS  - 7
SN  - 0951-3558
DO  - 10.1108/09513550810904569
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810904569
AU  - De Maria William
PY  - 2008
Y1  - 2008/01/01
TI  - Measurements and markets: deconstructing the corruption perception index
T2  - International Journal of Public Sector Management
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 777
EP  - 797
Y2  - 2024/04/23
ER  -