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European Corruption in Geographic Perspective

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Abstract

This chapter addresses corruption in Europe and Russia. It notes that while typically European rates of corruption are lower than in most of the world, in some parts, notably Eastern Europe, corruption is an entrenched problem. It offers data on public perceptions of corruption and rates of bribery among countries. Next, it explores the spatiality of European corruption, including the distribution of population by degree of severity, map of levels of corruption and the World Bank’s control of corruption scores, and correlations between corruption and several indices. It then comments on corruption in Western Europe, followed by case studies of France, Spain and Italy. The next part summarizes corruption in Eastern Europe, notably in light of the ascension of many states into the European Union. It offers case studies of Ukraine and Russia. A brief conclusion reiterates why corruption is lower in the continent’s western half than in the east.

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Warf, B. (2019). European Corruption in Geographic Perspective. In: Global Corruption from a Geographic Perspective. GeoJournal Library, vol 125. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03478-8_3

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