Is South Korea Succeeding in Controlling Corruption?

Controlling corruption is one of difficult tasks for new democracies. Statistical studies show that only mature and stable democracies that are 40 or more years old are significantly less corrupt than autocracies. New democracies, on the other hand, are on average no less corrupt than authoritarian regimes. This paper attempts to document the trend of decreasing corruption in South Korea during the last decade, a new democracy that has been known for its high level of corruption in spite of splendid economic growth..x000d.Examination of various available data from surveys of perceptions and experience of corruption reveals that the incidence of petty corruption in public administration and election campaigns has substantially decreased over the last decade in South Korea. Also, there is evidence that high-level political corruption has been decreasing. This study illustrates the unreliability of perceived measures of corruption such as CPI and Control of Corruption for the purpose of trend analysis and the usefulness of data from surveys of experience of corruption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]