Corruption remains a central problem in many federal and multilevel systems causing a tremendous strain on government efficiency, effectiveness, and legitimacy. In turn, corruption also presents potentially detrimental consequences for democracy, electoral integrity, and human rights protections. Despite the risk posed by increasing and reoccurring instances of corruption, little attention has been paid to the relationship between and dynamics at play between federalism and multilevel governance and corruption. The Forum is currently considering future work on this topic that may center around the manifestations of corruption that are more typical of federal systems where central, regional, and local government officials operate with varying degrees of independence, the effects of local governance corruption on the beneficial effects of decentralization, and methods of revenue sharing between national and sub-national levels.
