On the relationship between corruption and political ideology: the case of South Korea

Hyun Jong Kim; Sol Lim; Tae Hwan Kim; Yunmi Kim

doi:10.1007/s10308-025-00720-9

On the relationship between corruption and political ideology: the case of South Korea

Hyun Jong Kim
, Sol Lim
, Tae Hwan Kim
, Yunmi Kim

School of Economics

Yonsei University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This article empirically investigates the relative effectiveness of political regimes liberal versus conservative in combating corruption in South Korea. Two corruption indices, the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International and the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) by the World Bank, are employed to measure corruption levels. Through mean difference analysis and regression analysis, some strong and consistent empirical evidence emerges, suggesting that the liberal regime might have proven more effective in combating corruption in South Korea than its conservative counterpart, assuming that the perceived levels of corruption, as measured by both CPI and WGI, serve as reasonable approximations of the actual level of corruption.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	23-55
Number of pages	33
Journal	Asia Europe Journal
Volume	23
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10308-025-00720-9
State	Published - Mar 2025

Keywords

Conservative
Corruption
Liberal
Political ideology
Political regime

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10.1007/s10308-025-00720-9

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abstract = "This article empirically investigates the relative effectiveness of political regimes liberal versus conservative in combating corruption in South Korea. Two corruption indices, the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International and the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) by the World Bank, are employed to measure corruption levels. Through mean difference analysis and regression analysis, some strong and consistent empirical evidence emerges, suggesting that the liberal regime might have proven more effective in combating corruption in South Korea than its conservative counterpart, assuming that the perceived levels of corruption, as measured by both CPI and WGI, serve as reasonable approximations of the actual level of corruption.",

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AU - Kim, Hyun Jong

AU - Lim, Sol

AU - Kim, Tae Hwan

AU - Kim, Yunmi

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025.

PY - 2025/3

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N2 - This article empirically investigates the relative effectiveness of political regimes liberal versus conservative in combating corruption in South Korea. Two corruption indices, the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International and the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) by the World Bank, are employed to measure corruption levels. Through mean difference analysis and regression analysis, some strong and consistent empirical evidence emerges, suggesting that the liberal regime might have proven more effective in combating corruption in South Korea than its conservative counterpart, assuming that the perceived levels of corruption, as measured by both CPI and WGI, serve as reasonable approximations of the actual level of corruption.

AB - This article empirically investigates the relative effectiveness of political regimes liberal versus conservative in combating corruption in South Korea. Two corruption indices, the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transparency International and the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) by the World Bank, are employed to measure corruption levels. Through mean difference analysis and regression analysis, some strong and consistent empirical evidence emerges, suggesting that the liberal regime might have proven more effective in combating corruption in South Korea than its conservative counterpart, assuming that the perceived levels of corruption, as measured by both CPI and WGI, serve as reasonable approximations of the actual level of corruption.

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On the relationship between corruption and political ideology: the case of South Korea

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Keywords

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