Abstract

Corruption is widely believed to be a self-reinforcing phenomenon, in the sense that the incentive to engage in corrupt acts increases as corruption becomes more widespread. Some argue that corruption's self-reinforcing property necessarily implies that incremental anticorruption reforms cannot be effective, and that the only way to escape a high-corruption equilibrium “trap” is through a so-called “big bang” or “big push.” However, corruption's self-reinforcing property does not logically entail the necessity of a big bang approach to reform. Indeed, corruption's self-reinforcing property may strengthen the case for pursuing sustained, cumulative incremental reforms. While there may be other reasons to prefer a big bang approach to an incremental approach, this conclusion cannot be grounded solely or primarily on corruption's self-reinforcing character.

中文翻译：

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腐败是自我强化的陷阱：对改革战略的启示

抽象的

从某种意义上说，随着腐败变得越来越普遍，从事腐败行为的动机会增强，腐败被普遍认为是一种自我强化的现象。一些人认为，腐败的自我强化性质必然意味着渐进式的反腐败改革无法奏效，而摆脱高腐败均衡“陷阱”的唯一方法是通过所谓的“大爆炸”或“大推动”。但是，从逻辑上讲，腐败的自我增强特性并不意味着必须采取大爆炸的方式进行改革。确实，腐败的自我强化特性可能会为寻求持续，累积的渐进式改革提供依据。尽管可能有其他原因更倾向于采用大爆炸式方法而不是增量式方法，但该结论不能仅基于或主要基于腐败。