Citizens’ and Politicians’ Definitions of Corruption, Corruption Survey Quality, and Political Will for Anti-Corruption Reform: The Portuguese Case Put to the Test

Figures & data

Table 1. Top five words that citizens and politicians used to define corruption.

Citizens
Word	Occurrences	Proportion of the total population (N = 1,020)
1. Money	102	10%
2. Politicians	98	9.6%
3. Robbery	83	8.1%
4. Dishonesty	69	6.7%
5. Deviation	64	6.2%
Politicians
Word	Occurrences	Proportion of the total population (N = 120)
1. Dishonesty	40	33.3%
2. Illegality	31	25.8%
3. Cronyism	29	24.1%
4. Robbery	26	21.6%
5. Money	25	20.8%

Sources: Magalhães and de Sousa (2021) and de Sousa and Coroado (2023).

Figure 1. Communities/categories of words that citizens associated with corruption.

Source: Magalhães and de Sousa (2021).

Figure 2. Communities/categories of words that politicians associated with corruption.

Source: de Sousa and Coroado (2023).

Table 2. Top five words that citizens and politicians used to define corruption as “misconduct.”

Citizens
Word Total in the category = 89	Occurrences (N = 991)	Proportion of occurrence (in the category)
1. Robbery	83	8.3%
2. Dishonesty	69	6.9%
3. Bribery	60	6%
4. Lack (absence of)	52	5.2%
5. Theft	44	4.4%
Politicians
Word Total in the category = 76	Occurrences (N = 531)	Proportion of occurrence (in the category)
1. Dishonesty	40	7.5%
2. Illegality	31	5.8%
3. Money	25	4.7%
4. Abuse	19	3.5%
4. Crime	19	3.5%

Sources: Magalhães and de Sousa (2021) and de Sousa and Coroado (2023).

Table 3. Top five words that citizens and politicians used to define corruption as “institutional decay.”

Citizens
Word Total in the category = 41	Occurrences (N = 833)	Proportion of occurrence (in the category)
1. Politicians	98	11.7%
2. People	64	7.6%
3. Banks	61	7.3%
4. Politics	52	6.2%
5. Justice	49	5.8%
Politicians
Word Total in the category = 64	Occurrences (N = 455)	Proportion of occurrence (in the category)
1. Cronyism	29	6.37%
2. Robbery	26	5.71%
3. Favoritism	23	5.05%
4. Fraud	23	5.05%
5. Business	22	4.83%
5. Banks	22	4.83%

Sources: Magalhães and de Sousa (2021) and de Sousa and Coroado (2023).

Table 4. Top-5 words that citizens used to define corruption as “private benefit.”

Word
Total in the category = 78	Occurrences (N = 914)	Proportion of occurrence (in the category)
1. Money	102	11.1%
2. Deviation	64	7%
3. Money Laundering	51	5.5%
4. Power	49	5.3%
5. Favoritism	45	4.9%

Source: Magalhães and de Sousa (2021).

Table 5. Definitions of corruption by meaning (at the minimalist and maximalist levels).

Meaning	Population surveyed
	Citizens	Politicians
Minimalist	“Theft of money by politicians”	“Dishonesty and illegality in a crony relationship”
Maximalist	“Misconducts with private benefits that distort the purpose of institutions”	“Misconducts that distort the purpose of institutions”

Source: Own elaboration using the EPOCA database (Magalhães & de Sousa, 2021).

Note: Quotation marks symbolize (and reinforce the idea that) the definitions presented are collectively authored by both Portuguese citizens and politicians.

Magalhães, P. C., de Sousa, L. (2021). Inquérito à população portuguesa no âmbito do projecto EPOCA: Corrupção e crescimento económico, 2021. PTDC/CPO-CPO/28316/2017. Arquivo Português de Informação Social APIS0086. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.20/2106

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de Sousa, L., & Coroado, S. (2023). Ethics and integrity in politics: Perceptions, control, and impact (ETHICS), 2021. Arquivo Português de Informação Social, Lisboa. APIS0096. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.20/2116

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