Neoliberal and Critical Narrative: The Social Construction of the Global Norm Against Corruption

Abstract

This article problematizes the intellectual foundations for global corruption governance through the narrative method. According to this method, informal rules or formal bureaucracies create shared understandings and imaginaries within which people think and act. With this approach, we intend to describe, analyze, and critique the narrative that has influenced the social construction of the international anti-corruption regime. Even though the hegemonic narrative of neoliberal governance was institutionalized in the different fora and relevant international instruments concerning corruption, we conclude that its internalization phase has exhibited problems establishing its legitimacy. A structural approach of network configuration that problematizes the limits between the public/private and the legal/illegal is required to rethink the current crisis the global anti-corruption norm is going through.