Public corruption: The misuse of a public office for personal gain, in which a government official benefits at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Private corruption: The misuse of a public office for personal gain, which occurs between individuals in the private sector, including organized crime.

Bribery: An offer of money or favors to influence a public official which comes in the form of a fixed sum, a certain percentage of a contract, or any other favor in money in kind, usually paid to a state official or business person who can make contracts on behalf of the state or business or otherwise distribute benefits to companies or individuals, businessmen and clients.

Nepotism: A form of corruption in which officials favor relatives or close friends for positions in which they hold some decision-making authority.

Clientelism: A form of corruption that is characterized by "patron-client" relationships in which relatively powerful and rich "patrons" promise to provide relatively powerless and poor "clients" with benefits, such as jobs, protection or infrastructure, in exchange for votes.

Embezzlement: A form of corruption that occurs when public officials steal money or other government property, or when disloyal employees steal from their employers in the public and private sectors.   

Fraud: A form of corruption that occurs when a person cheats another through deceit.  It is usually a financial crime in which someone manipulates or distorts information and facts.

Extortion: A form of corruption in which one person coerces another to pay through money, goods, or favors for an action. In government, extortion occurs when government agencies do not provide services quickly, and as a result individuals will offer money to encourage more rapid application or service delivery.

Rent seeking: A form of corruption in which individuals, firms, and industries engage in the economically unproductive practice of investing significant resources in lobbying activities to obtain protection from foreign competition, or when there is an economic gain without reciprocity.

Administrative corruption: Corruption that alters the implementation of policies, such as getting a license even if you do not qualify for it.

Political corruption: Corruption that influences the formulation of laws, regulations, and policies such as revoking all licenses and gaining the sole right to operate the beer or gas monopoly.

Grand corruption: Corruption that involves substantial amounts of money and usually high-level officials.

Petty corruption: Corruption that involves smaller sums of money and typically more junior officials.

Kleptocracy: Grand corruption involving public officials.

Governance: The way government carries out its work through decision-making and implementation.

Rule of law:  A legal system in which rules are clear, well-understood, and fairly enforced, including property rights and enforcement of contracts.

Accountability: The state of being accountable, liable or answerable to government.  

Responsiveness: The quality of being responsive in which the government listens to people’s views and concerns; acknowledges concerns impartially; designs a system in which public information capacity can be implemented, providing the best possible access to and use of information by multilingual or disadvantaged communities at the local level; recognizes the role of the media in strengthening government responsiveness to citizen feedback and opening communication to reach more disenfranchised communities.

Transparency: The quality that describes when there is free access by citizens to public information.

Oversight: One of the legislature’s “check and balance” functions, through which it seeks to ensure that programs are carried out legally, effectively, and for the purposes for which they were intended.  

Participation: The process through which citizens influence and share control over government’s priority setting, policymaking, resource allocation, and access to public goods and services.

Whistleblower:  A person who informs on another or makes public disclosure of corruption or wrongdoing.  

Public interest-institutionalist: A political perspective that promotes incentives for ethical behavior but puts the onus on the institution rather than on the whistleblower.

Price controls: A form of government intervention in the economy in which a government agency regulates the prices that would have otherwise fluctuated with consumer needs.

Qualitative research: Research concerned with understanding the processes that underlie patterns, and measures information based on opinions and values, not on statistical data. 

Indicator: A statistical value that provides an indication of the condition or direction of the economy.

Survey: A sampling, or partial collection, of facts, figures, or opinions taken and used to approximate or indicate what a complete collection and analysis might reveal.

Regulatory Quality:  An indicator for good governance that focuses on policies, including market-unfriendly price controls, inadequate bank supervision, and burdens imposed by excessive regulation foreign trade and business development.

Rule of Law:  An indicator that measures corruption by measuring the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society.

Diagnostic surveys:  A survey of facts, figures, or opinions that are collected from a representative group or sample of the population.

Perception surveys:  Surveys that examine a problem across a large number of countries to show where problems are perceived to be higher and where they are perceived to be lower.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs): Organizations including citizen groups, nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, business associations, think tanks, academia, religious organizations and the media, which can play a vital role in a nation’s fight against corruption.

Libel laws: Laws meant to protect media stories from unsubstantiated claims.

Criminal libel: A law protecting the public from journalist lies that threaten the stability of the country.

Access to information: A tool that empowers citizens through access to and use of information and knowledge and engages citizens and citizen organizations in public policy debates, public services delivery, and the monitoring and management of public goods.

Freedom of Information Laws: Laws that officially legislate this basic professional and human right allowing citizens to request that access be provided for information held by the government that is not otherwise made routinely available.