A Comprehensive Investigation on the Rationale of Corruption and its Liabilities in Ecuador (CIRCLE)

Summary

The fight against corruption seems to be as relevant today as it has been in the last decades. Cases of grand corruption are normally the centre of focus, but less attention goes towards the study of the context-dependent mechanisms that make individuals justify, legitimise, or reject corruption, and how corruption is understood and experienced in different groups. The CIRCLE project has members of two local HEIs, two Belgian HEIs, and four key NGOs that work on corruption and transparency. The project has a mixed-methods research agenda. First, we aim to understand how corruption is experienced, valued and perceived as an everyday practice of the ordinary citizens of Ecuador by means of qualitative research. We will inquire about what is considered to be corruption, under what conditions, and whether citizens are aware of it, accept, reject, justify or legitimize it. In the second stage, we aim to measure Ecuadorian’s perceptions and attitudes toward corruption building upon the results of the first stage and complementing it with up-to-date literature. We will define the constructs and the context, design a set of questions bearing in mind content validity, revise the items, collect pilot data, make corrections, select and revise items, and assess the dimensionality, validity and reliability using a representative sample.  In the third stage, we will test hypotheses about the most important factors that facilitate, maintain and mitigate corruption as a form of social interaction, using an experimental design: lab experiments and lab-in-the-field experiments with target populations. In the process, we will provide training for academic and nonacademics, promote debate, and strengthen the capacities of key civil society stakeholders with the objective of providing evidence for better policy.

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