Examining the Influence of Religion in Minimizing Corruption: A Systematic Review Paper

Abstract

Corruption as a social activity which is detested by all faiths damages society by increasing inequality, decreasing accountability and political responsiveness, and producing rising frustration and hardship among citizens. This paper seeks to assess the scope followed by previous scholars on the influence of religion on minimizing corruption and its implications on policy. It also documents the limitations of previous research and examines the assumptions acknowledged by previous research. Of the 25 published research papers accessed from the different databases, a sample of 10 was reviewed. The ten peer-reviewed papers have followed quantitative approaches to investigate the influence of religion in minimizing corruption. Thus, data available from the 10 papers limits perspectives, and data from other sources will be necessary to understand the multi-faced nature of corruption. Key highlights from secondary data analysis have included the perverse relationship between corruption and public spending, which collapsed just after prosecutions and convictions. Cross-sectional surveys have focused on whether or not religious belief has an impact on the levels of corruption in state institutions. The World Values Survey (WVS) measures the level of corruption in the world's political and economic institutions, as well as the extent to which these institutions are affected by religious, ethical, and behavioral orientations. Previous research has shown that religion has little influence on politics and does not have the power to purge the political system of corruption. Gaps identified from previous research include the question of a causal explanation for the macro-level influence of religion on corruption. Policy implications associated with gaps in knowledge include a lack of holistic and in-depth data on the impact of religion on corruption. Thus, future research, focusing on a wider scope that affects the occurrence of corruption, such as the opportunities and threats faced other than the examination of the variables of religious orientation, ethical orientation, and behavioral orientation to predict the occurrence of corruption, will be key to the study of the impact of religion on corruption.
Keywords: Religion, corruption, influence, religiosity, ethical, culture, trust