Does democracy breed integrity? Corruption in Taiwan during the democratic transformation period

Abstract

Taiwan’s transformation from single-party authoritarianism to multiparty democracy has been considered one of the best cases among the third-wave democratizations. Has this best-case democratization created a clean government? Does democracy breed integrity? The purpose of this paper is to answer this research question by using corruption measurement data from the Corruption Perceptions Index, Governance Indicators, Global Corruption Barometer, and the Taiwan Integrity Survey. According to the data analyzed in this paper, the people of Taiwan doubt the integrity of their government. This is especially true of their elected officials and political appointees. The message from the data is clear: Taiwan’s democratic transformation has not improved but rather has blemished the integrity of the government. Taiwan needs to exert greater effort to promote integrity, fight corruption, and rebuild public trust in the government. The challenge remains for political leaders to prove that they are not actually fuelling corrupt practices, but doing the best they can to enhance transparency, accountability, and integrity. However, in addition to expecting self-control and strong commitment to integrity from their leaders, citizens must play a more active and aggressive role in building a system of integrity and ensuring good democratic governance.