{ "model": { "rank": 1502, "code": "thing-q366", "model_id": "vr.tr.corruption", "name": "corruption", "purpose": "Let an agent explain corruption and its forms and causes, describe measurement, law and anti-corruption measures, present debates and cases with attribution, and support civic and research questions without accusing individuals.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.ACT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q366/", "tier": 2, "score": 142, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "cronyism", "spoils system", "Wasta", "no-show job", "rent-seeking", "bureaucratic rent-seeking", "police corruption", "carding", "judicial corruption", "Police corruption in Peru", "Police corruption in Spain since 1975", "Police corruption in Mexico", "Institutional corruption", "post-conflict corruption", "Rolexgate", "Corruption in Niger", "Corruption in Malta", "Corruption in the Central African Republic", "Corruption in Fiji", "Strategic corruption", "Corruption in Mozambique", "Corruption in Mauritania", "Corruption in São Tomé and Príncipe", "corruption in Tanzania", "corruption in Tunisia", "corruption in Russia", "Corruption in the Soviet Union", "smeren en verteren", "simony", "systemic corruption", "corruption in South Sudan", "Telephone law", "corruption in Zimbabwe", "Ana-Ana", "Padrino System" ], "aliasCount": 35, "merged": 35, "knownIn": 142, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.corruption-act", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q366", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q366", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T04:21:32Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q366", "registryId": "vr.tr.corruption", "name": "corruption", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.ACT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q366/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.corruption", "name": "corruption", "purpose": "Let an agent explain corruption and its forms and causes, describe measurement, law and anti-corruption measures, present debates and cases with attribution, and support civic and research questions without accusing individuals.", "definition": "The abuse of entrusted power for private gain, including bribery, embezzlement, nepotism, cronyism, patronage systems such as the spoils system, favour networks such as wasta, no-show jobs, rent-seeking by officials and businesses, and fraud in public and private institutions; corruption undermines governance, development and trust, is measured by indices and surveys, and is addressed by criminal law, anti-corruption agencies, transparency measures and international conventions.", "what_it_is_for": "Abuse of entrusted power for private gain.", "affordances": [ "explain forms and causes", "describe measurement and law", "present cases with attribution", "support civic questions" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Entrusted power", "Private gain", "Many forms", "Legal and social sanction" ], "appearance": "Not physical; practices and transactions.", "visual_identification": [ "Abuse of entrusted power for private gain", "Bribery, embezzlement, nepotism, rent-seeking", "Legal lobbying and gifts within rules are not corruption; incompetence is not corruption" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "bribery and kickbacks", "embezzlement and fraud", "nepotism, cronyism and patronage", "rent-seeking and state capture", "petty and grand corruption" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "abuse of power", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "crime", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "politics", "why": "power and its abuse" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "ombudsman", "why": "oversight institutions" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Anti-corruption laws and international conventions", "Public procurement and transparency rules", "Corporate compliance standards" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Accusing individuals without adjudicated findings", "Partisan presentation", "Treating all informal practices as corruption without context" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What corruption is.", "rationale": "Governance.", "layers": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept and forms.", "findings": [ { "id": "concept-finding", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is corruption, and how do bribery, embezzlement, nepotism, cronyism, patronage and rent-seeking differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the request accusing a specific person without adjudicated findings, which must be avoided?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "causes", "name": "Causes", "description": "Causes and effects.", "findings": [ { "id": "causes-finding", "name": "Causes", "description": "Causes.", "questions": [ { "text": "What causes corruption, and what effects does it have on development and trust, according to research?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "measure", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measurement and law.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "measure", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measurement.", "findings": [ { "id": "measure-finding", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measurement.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is corruption measured by indices, surveys and audits, and what are the limits of these measures?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific index?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and enforcement.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do anti-corruption laws, agencies and international conventions address corruption?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is legal advice needed from a professional?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "address", "name": "Address", "description": "Anti-corruption measures.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "measures", "name": "Measures", "description": "Prevention.", "findings": [ { "id": "measures-finding", "name": "Measures", "description": "Prevention.", "questions": [ { "text": "What transparency, procurement, whistleblowing and institutional measures reduce corruption, according to evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits transparency?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "cases", "name": "Cases", "description": "Cases and debates.", "findings": [ { "id": "cases-finding", "name": "Cases", "description": "Cases.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should documented corruption cases and debates about informal practices such as wasta be presented, with findings and positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has corruption been understood and fought historically, from spoils systems to modern agencies?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can anti-corruption be taught in civic and professional education?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each form be a separate entry?", "How should indices and reports be linked?", "How should legal cases be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a corruption, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain corruption and its forms and causes, describe measurement, law and anti-corruption measures, present debates and cases with attribution, and support civic and research questions without accusing individuals.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: cronyism, spoils system, Wasta, no-show job, rent-seeking, bureaucratic rent-seeking, police corruption, carding, judicial corruption, Police corruption in Peru, Police corruption in Spain since 1975, Police corruption in Mexico.", "35 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 142 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a corruption, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "cronyism", "spoils system", "Wasta", "no-show job", "rent-seeking", "bureaucratic rent-seeking", "police corruption", "carding", "judicial corruption", "Police corruption in Peru", "Police corruption in Spain since 1975", "Police corruption in Mexico" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 142 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 35 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one corruption from another, and a corruption from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a corruption sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a corruption from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a corruption passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a corruption between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a corruption, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a corruption is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a corruption proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a corruption, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a corruption and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a corruption consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a corruption takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What corruption is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of corruption are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is corruption operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of corruption and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of corruption?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as corruption?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a corruption came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a corruption and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a corruption is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a corruption, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a corruption, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a corruption is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }