The aim of this thesis is to investigate the definition of the phenomenon corruption, and also if corruption can be measured. There are many definition of the concept, the most common and simplest definition being the one by the World Bank “the abuse of public power for private benefit” (Tanzi, 1998: 564).

Various organizations measure corruption and each organization uses different methods to collect information. Many organizations present their results by ranking countries according to a scale, making a cross-country comparison. Using their own specific scaling gives a general view of how corrupted a country is. In this thesis, five international organizations are chosen. What they all have in common is that they are connected to corruption in some way. Most of the five organizations do not devote their time only on investigating corruption. Out of the five it is only Transparency International who focuses exclusively corruption. The other four organizations investigate corruption as a part of a more extensive research.

The information from defining corruption and information based on international organizations are applied to four countries chosen for this study. The four countries are: Denmark, Greece, Italy and Sweden. The countries are chosen due to that they are all members of the European Union. Denmark and Sweden are generally placed on a high ranking when organizations measure corruption, indicating that there is little corruption in the country. Greece and Italy are not ranked as high as the two Nordic countries.

This thesis is based on various literature and information from organizations, especially when investigating how corruption can be measured among countries.