Global Corruption and Economic Development: The Experience of China, Japan, and South Korea (2018–2023)

The paper will explore the issue of corruption and economic development by comparing China, Japan and South Korea over the years 2018-2023. Corruption is a very pressing issue of the global agenda, defining the quality of governance, and determining the paths of development long-term. Although the three nations are geographically close to each other, they have a distinctly diverse institutional structure and the anti-corruption strategies, which offer an interesting point of comparison inquiry. The main knowledge gap addressed in the article is that few comparative, time-specific studies have been done regarding the question of how the various models of anti-corruption: authoritarian, democratic-institutional, and hybrid reformist, can translate into economic growth and governance in East Asian countries. The current literature tends to discuss these countries independently or pay attention to individual indicators without considering institutional background and recent changes. The methodology of the study is a qualitative-comparative approach with the descriptive analysis of secondary data. It utilizes the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), government reports, and data of international organizations in order to evaluate the tendencies of corruption level, policy changes and their economic repercussions in the three instances. The results show conflicting growth patterns. The reason corruption is kept very low in Japan is through the deeply rooted democratic institutions and transparency standards. South Korea is showing great progress, which is promoted by the extensive legal reforms, digital governance, and vigorous civic supervision. Through its widespread top-down anti-corruption campaign, China exhibits rather negligible CPI gains which is limited by a poor transparency and institutional accountability. The findings indicate that institutionalized transparency, rule of law and the participation of the people has a stronger correlation with sustainable declines in corruption compared to campaigns that are enforcement-based. The implications of the study are that, good anti-corruption measures, however, are not only mechanisms of governance but also the most important predictors of investment confidence and long-term economic growth, especially to both the emerging and advanced economies.