Anticorruption in Sweden: A Discursive Institutionalist Analysis of Discourse, Interactions and Solutions

• In Event: Corporate Crime in the U.S. and Europe

Abstract

Corruption is increasingly being recognized as a growing problem around the world. Following this, research on corruption has also grown substantially, with now almost every angle of the problem having been investigated. However, there is still little knowledge of the formation of anti-corruption strategies in the so-called “least corrupt” countries in Scandinavia. One of those countries is Sweden, where a burgeoning anti-corruption movement has gradually taken form despite low corruption levels. Using a discursive institutionalist framework, I have analyzed the development of Swedish anti-corruption policy, focusing particularly on developments since the 1990s. The analysis is specifically focused on exploring the interactive processes associated with the policy construction as well as the main sets of ideas that have competed for acceptance. These ideas express views on how the problem of corruption is perceived in a Swedish setting and how it should be solved. The empirical material consists of policy documents and academic literature, reflecting both political and expert discourses on corruption.

Author

• Monika Sellgren Karlsson, Stockholm University