Corruption by Design, Integrity by Choice. How Strategic Foresight Transforms Vulnerable Systems into Accountable Governance By AV Munoz

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Main Author: Muñoz, Analiza
Format: Recurso digital
Published: Zenodo 2026
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author Muñoz, Analiza
author_facet Muñoz, Analiza
contents <p>This study examines corruption as a dynamic process of human decision‑making shaped by institutional design, rather than as an isolated legal violation or moral failure. Drawing on a scoping review of multidisciplinary literature published between 2000 and 2025 and a set of illustrative, comparative case studies, the research analyzes how desire, power, opportunity, mindset, and vulnerability interact within governance systems to produce predictable patterns of corrupt conduct. The scoping review maps recurring theoretical and empirical insights across public administration, behavioral ethics, and governance studies, while the case studies translate these concepts into observable institutional practices.</p> <p>Findings show that corruption rarely begins with overt criminal intent; instead, it emerges incrementally through small, rationalized choices that become normalized when discretion is high, oversight is weak, and accountability is selective. Both the literature and case analyses demonstrate that integrity is most durable when systems alter everyday incentives and constraints, making ethical behavior the most rational and professionally secure option. Isolated reforms such as legal sanctions, digital tools, or ethics codes are shown to be insufficient unless they are embedded within coherent integrity systems that align compensation, transparency, oversight, culture, and citizen participation.</p> <p>Building on these findings, the study proposes an integrated governance framework that reconceptualizes anti‑corruption as an adaptive, continuous cycle sustained through strategic foresight, systems mapping, technological transparency, ethical leadership, citizen co‑regulation, cross‑border cooperation, and ongoing monitoring. Rather than attempting to suppress human motives such as ambition and desire for control, the framework redirects them toward integrity through institutional design. The study contributes to anti‑corruption scholarship by reframing corruption as a foreseeable outcome of permissive systems and integrity as a deliberate product of governance architecture. It offers practical implications for policymakers by emphasizing that restoring public trust requires not only enforcement and rules, but systems that anticipate human behavior and continuously adapt to emerging risks.</p>
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spellingShingle Corruption by Design, Integrity by Choice. How Strategic Foresight Transforms Vulnerable Systems into Accountable Governance By AV Munoz
Muñoz, Analiza
<p>This study examines corruption as a dynamic process of human decision‑making shaped by institutional design, rather than as an isolated legal violation or moral failure. Drawing on a scoping review of multidisciplinary literature published between 2000 and 2025 and a set of illustrative, comparative case studies, the research analyzes how desire, power, opportunity, mindset, and vulnerability interact within governance systems to produce predictable patterns of corrupt conduct. The scoping review maps recurring theoretical and empirical insights across public administration, behavioral ethics, and governance studies, while the case studies translate these concepts into observable institutional practices.</p> <p>Findings show that corruption rarely begins with overt criminal intent; instead, it emerges incrementally through small, rationalized choices that become normalized when discretion is high, oversight is weak, and accountability is selective. Both the literature and case analyses demonstrate that integrity is most durable when systems alter everyday incentives and constraints, making ethical behavior the most rational and professionally secure option. Isolated reforms such as legal sanctions, digital tools, or ethics codes are shown to be insufficient unless they are embedded within coherent integrity systems that align compensation, transparency, oversight, culture, and citizen participation.</p> <p>Building on these findings, the study proposes an integrated governance framework that reconceptualizes anti‑corruption as an adaptive, continuous cycle sustained through strategic foresight, systems mapping, technological transparency, ethical leadership, citizen co‑regulation, cross‑border cooperation, and ongoing monitoring. Rather than attempting to suppress human motives such as ambition and desire for control, the framework redirects them toward integrity through institutional design. The study contributes to anti‑corruption scholarship by reframing corruption as a foreseeable outcome of permissive systems and integrity as a deliberate product of governance architecture. It offers practical implications for policymakers by emphasizing that restoring public trust requires not only enforcement and rules, but systems that anticipate human behavior and continuously adapt to emerging risks.</p>
title Corruption by Design, Integrity by Choice. How Strategic Foresight Transforms Vulnerable Systems into Accountable Governance By AV Munoz
url https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19595683