Understanding and Measuring Political Corruption

Measuring political corruption remains challenging due to its hidden nature, contested norms, and the strategic concealment practised by political and economic elites. This chapter reviews recent advances in measuring political corruption in key domains: clientelism, media capture, legislative favouritism, patronage and politicisation in public administration, and favouritism in public spending. It defines political corruption as the violation of established norms of inclusion throughout the political process; that is, the processes through which popular preferences translate into collective action. The chapter highlights major progress in survey-based, administrative, and micro-level measurement driven by growing data availability and innovative methodologies increasingly tailored to context and specific forms of political corruption. Some areas have advanced particularly far, such as political clientelism or favouritism in public spending. The chapter establishes that measuring political corruption is a mature field offering synergies across emerging data sources and methods, while notable gaps remain in areas such as judicial decision-making or state-backed loans.