On measuring integrity with Professor Christoph Demmke, University of Vaasa

Background

The Global Programme for Measuring Corruption (‘GPMC’) recently held a 'think-in' at their HQ in the International Anti-Corruption Academy, in Vienna, to examine how measuring a different concept - integrity - could help change the narrative in the anti-corruption field and lead to a more useful set of indicators.

The GPMC assembled a learned, thoughtful and talkative team of practitioners and academics, from a diverse range of disciplines and continents, to listen, debate and learn about the topic over four days.

In this one-on-one conversation between Philip Berman and Professor Christoph Demmke at the think-in, he talks about; his interest and experience in anti-corruption, ethics and integrity; how measuring integrity could offer a fresh approach; and the potential challenges of using a different means of measurement.

More about

Christoph Demmke is a highly networked and distinguished researcher who focuses on public management, good governance and ethical issues. He has expertise in comparative research in public management. Demmke holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Speyer in Germany in 1994, where he also began his academic career. He has since worked as an advisor to the German Government and professor of comparative public administration at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in the Netherlands. From 2014 to 2015, he served as Head of Unit at the OECD (Governance and HR reforms in the public sector), as a professor of public management and public policy at the University of Friedrichshafen in Germany in 2015-2016 and as a visiting professor at the University of Potsdam since 2017. Beforehand, he also served as a visiting professor at the University of Maastricht, the College of Europe in Bruge (B) and received scholarships at Harvard University and as a fellow at the University of Oxford.

Here are a couple of articles from Christoph if you want to explore his field further.

Explaining the Popularity of Integrity Policies in Times of Critical Governance—The Case of Conflicts of Interest Policies for Ministers in the EU-Member States https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10999922.2021.1987056

The end of the world as we know it – public ethics in times of de-standardization and individualization https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14719037.2021.2000221

Want to hear more?

We recorded one-on-one conversations with all of the other participants at the think-in in Vienna whch are available to listent to now on all the major podcast platforms LINK.

After the event we also recorded a conversation between the co-organisers of the 'think-in' - Liz David Barrett, Dieter Zinnbauer and Juan Ceballos - on why they chose the topic, what they learnt from the event and how it will inform the 'Programme' over the coming months.

Want to read more?

If you would like to read more on the topic then:

Here’s our background briefing paper (LINK TO COME) published before the think-in; and

Here’s our key insights paper published after the 'think-in'.

If you want to find out more about the programme, visit this link:

https://www.iaca.int/measuring-corruption

And if you have specific questions please feel free to email the team: gpmc@iaca.int