Educational Equality is Key to Eliminating Corruption

On April 8, Eric Uslaner, Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland - College Park, presented a keynote lecture called ‘The Historical Roots of Corruption’ on the second day of the XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development at HSE. Professor Uslaner is a widely recognized expert in political science, with specific interests in political economy, political behaviour, equality, trust and corruption. Among his more recent books is Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law: The Bulging Pocket Makes the Easy Life published by Cambridge University Press in 2008.

One of the main ideas he presented in his lecture at the April Conference was that levels of education across 78 countries in 1870 strongly predict corruption in 2010. Historical levels of education reflect levels of equality across countries, which demonstrate strong ‘path dependence’ over time. 

The relationship between historical levels of education and corruption remains strong even when controlling for changes in the level of education, gross national product per capita, and democratic governance. Regime type is generally not significant.

In his presentation, Professor Uslaner traced early education to levels of economic equality in the late 19th to early 21st centuries, arguing that societies with more equality educated more of their citizens. Greater education gave their citizens more opportunities and power, thereby reducing corruption. Historical evidence from Europe and from Spanish, British, and French colonies shows that strong states provided more education to their citizens and that such states were themselves more common where economic disparities were smaller.

Professor Uslaner stressed that countries have responded to major external threats by increasing the level of education, and the need for increased state capacity was a strong motivation for introducing universal education in many countries. Education provided by state also replaced the influence of the church.

Only four countries in the world have truly done a good job in terms of education according to Professor Uslaner: South Korea, Japan, Finland and Italy. Finland improved the level of education in order to break away from the influence of the Soviet Union. Japan had no choice; it had to reform its education system after the Second World War. After the Korean War, South Korea was also forced to prove that it was different, including by means of education reform.

Professor Uslaner also showed the extent to which the level of corruption is closely linked with the level of education. The higher a country’s education level, the less corrupt it is. Societies with more equal education have given citizens more opportunities and power to oppose corruption. During the discussion after the lecture, it was remarked that ‘Nobody likes corruption but some people can’t find a way to avoid it’.