Revolutions and corruption

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between successful revolutions and corruption using data on revolutionary campaigns since 1900 and corruption measures retrieved from the Varieties of Democracy database. We find that successful nonviolent and violent revolutions produce null effects on corruption; education decreases corruption; and upon adjusting for the moderating effect of education, violent revolutions induce corruption. Our results imply that classic narratives celebrating such upheavals as corruption-limiting are oversimplified and optimistic. Our analysis challenges conventional wisdom and contributes an instructive, empirically-grounded assessment of the revolution’s corruption consequences to the scholarship.