ABSTRACT This article presents comparative evidence about the relevance of behavioural drivers in relation to petty corruption in three East African countries. It discusses the potential to incorporate behavioural insights into anti-corruption policy-making. Persistently high levels of bureaucratic corruption prevail in many countries across the African continent. This along with the limited effectiveness of conventional anti-corruption prescriptions call for a contextualised understanding of the multiple factors determining corruption-related decision-making. Adopting a behavioural lens involves accounting for the human factor as it relates to the effects of sociality and social constructs on propensities for corruption. As such, this novel approach complements the literature that has sought to understand corruption on the basis of political, economic, and institutional drivers and constraints. Field research conducted in Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda found evidence for such behavioural drivers, showing that citizens are swayed by social pressures and beliefs that ultimately spur petty corruption by endorsing associated maladaptive practices. Sustained by social norms of group solidarity and reciprocity and legitimised by commonly shared perceptions of corruption as the norm, the research points to a problematic overlap of the public (formal) and the socio-cultural (informal) spheres. By adding a behavioural dimension to the study of the drivers of corruption, this article seeks to contribute towards the development of more effective anti-corruption policy formulation that acknowledges the pitfalls attached to behavioural factors that conventional anti-corruption prescriptions have largely failed to address.

中文翻译：

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公共部门的轻微腐败：从行为角度对三个东非国家的比较研究

摘要 本文提供了三个东非国家行为驱动因素与小规模腐败相关性的比较证据。它讨论了将行为洞察纳入反腐败政策制定的潜力。在非洲大陆的许多国家，官僚腐败现象持续存在。再加上传统反腐败处方的有效性有限，需要对决定腐败相关决策的多种因素进行情境化的理解。采用行为视角需要考虑人为因素，因为它涉及社会性和社会结构对腐败倾向的影响。因此，这种新颖的方法补充了试图基于政治、经济和体制驱动因素和制约因素。在坦桑尼亚、乌干达和卢旺达进行的实地研究发现了此类行为驱动因素的证据，表明公民受到社会压力和信仰的影响，这些社会压力和信仰最终会通过支持相关的适应不良的做法来刺激小规模腐败。该研究受到群体团结和互惠的社会规范的支持，并被普遍认同的腐败为规范所合法化，研究指出了公共（正式）和社会文化（非正式）领域存在问题的重叠。通过在腐败驱动因素的研究中增加行为维度，