Through the lens of social constructionism: the development of innovative anti-corruption policies and practices in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, 2000–2015

The past decade has witnessed two distinct yet interconnected developments in the understanding, policy and practice of corruption studies. On the one hand, corruption has progressively been constructed as a major threat to economic and social development through the use of deceivingly simplistic Western-centric definitions,1 awareness campaigns and international perception-indexes that create the illusion of measuring real levels of corruption. Such developments have recently been criticized by academic observers and activists alike for presenting corruption as a country-specific issue, closely linked to the public sector. On the other hand, and perhaps counterintuitively, anti-corruption efforts have been decontextualized, focusing on generic fixes that typically involve the public sector. This one-size-fits-all approach has not produced impressive results, and has come under attack for ignoring the historical context and function of contemporary states.