Rethinking capitalism and corruption

International factors (globalization, the global pro-integrity regulation and the external anticorruption interventions in various countries, e.g., Kosovo, Iraq, Guatemala and Afghanistan) did not succeed in building control of corruption. The chief reason is that, in the absence of clear jurisdictions and normative constraints, the opportunities for corruption in the global world exceed by far the constraints. Competition alone is no match for the sovereignty of corrupt governments and the need to do business with them. As the world has just entered a new realism paradigm, we should at least acknowledge that the previous phase of norm socialization only succeeded at a de jure, and not a de facto level. UNCAC has not changed any country when corruption is concerned, any more than the UN has managed to universalize human rights practices. But this does not mean that a universal kit of norms should not have been created, especially since citizens of most countries identify with values of ethical universalism. It only means that citizens (and their associations), and they alone, can help advance the transition from the legal ethical universalism to its practice.