Conference Agenda

Corruption is a matter of incidence and spatial distribution, with distinct patterns emerging across different institutional and economic contexts. This study explores how corruption risk varies spatially within Italy, a country that exemplifies the contrast between high-performing and low-performing economic areas. Using municipal-level public procurement data from 2007 to 2021 and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA), we identify non-random clusters of corruption risk that challenge conventional narratives. While Northern Italy exhibits localized corruption hotspots, the South shows more dispersed patterns, reflecting divergent institutional frameworks and market conditions. Our findings suggest that the spatial distribution of corruption at regional and sub-regional levels has distinct implications for governance, influencing institutional effectiveness and policy outcomes. This study contributes to the debate on anti-corruption strategies by highlighting the need for spatially differentiated approaches to tackling corruption.

Political will is often cited as a core impediment to action against corruption – such as policy and legislative framework strengthening, regulation, investigation, prosecution and asset recovery. The concept is, however, loosely defined and poorly understood both in policy-making and academic literature. This paper argues that the concept of “political will” itself is unhelpful in identifying and addressing the causes for lack of appropriate legislative frameworks and their implementation. It is often used as a ‘catch-all’ reason for lack of effective action. This paper presents a new framework to deconstruct the concept of political will by identifying the drivers that can be behind the reductionist label of “lack of political will” to address corruption. The proposed Octopus framework delves into eight categories of drivers of policy reforms (or lack thereof): (1) personal interests and preferences; (2) political ideology and motivations; (3) issue prioritisation; (4) capacity and resources; (5) authority for action; (6) social contract; (7) social norms; and (8) (mis)communication. The framework builds on existing analyses of the concept of political will, further deconstructing the elements that can be captured by the concept and its drivers. Finally, the paper provides actionable recommendations to develop tailored technical and politically astute approaches to tackle corruption, based on the different drivers of perceived lack of political action.