Rule of Law and Corruption Control: A Comparative Cross-National Analysis Using Worldwide Governance Indicators

Abstract

Corruption remains a major challenge to institutional effectiveness, governance quality, and public-sector accountability across countries. This study examines the relationship between governance indicators and corruption control using cross-national data obtained from the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) database. The study specifically investigates the influence of rule of law, regulatory quality, political stability, and voice and accountability on corruption control. A quantitative explanatory research design was employed using secondary panel data collected from 5,045 country-year observations. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) analysis, and multiple linear regression techniques were applied to evaluate the relationships among the variables. The findings revealed that rule of law, regulatory quality, and political stability have significant positive effects on corruption control, whereas voice and accountability did not demonstrate a statistically significant relationship. Among the governance dimensions, rule of law emerged as the strongest predictor of corruption control. The regression model explained approximately 88.3% of the variation in corruption-control outcomes, indicating a strong relationship between institutional quality and governance effectiveness. The study concludes that strengthening legal institutions, regulatory systems, and political stability is essential for improving anti-corruption performance and enhancing institutional governance across countries.