Corruption and EU Institutions: The Italians' Opinion

Abstract Corruption is unanimously recognized as an endemic pathology of the Italian political system. Even after the ‘Tangentopoli’ scandals that broke down the Prima Repubblica and rapidly changed the partisan configuration, corruption remains one of the most relevant problems that affects the public sector. The different successive governments do not seem to have achieved significant results in constraining corruption. Italian citizens perceive institutions as corrupt and are increasingly disenchanted about politics. But what is the opinion of the Italians about the role of the European Union (EU) institutions in facing the problem of corruption? The purpose of this paper is to analyse the perceptions of Italian citizens about the spread of corruption within EU institutions and their potential role in preventing and fighting corruption in their country. In line with the scholarly literature on this topic, we expect that citizens' attitudes toward the EU in relation to the problem of corruption are mainly driven by their perceptions of the domestic national context. Taking advantage of data gathered from the Eurobarometer and comparing the Italian and the European contexts, the paper shows that citizens' opinions about corruption within EU institutions are drawn by their perceptions at the national level. However, at the same time, citizens who express more negative evaluations of the performance at the national level tend to be more confident about the role played by the EU in restraining corruption.