Tech-Driven Integrity in Public Administration: The Global-Local Dynamics of Digital Transformation and their Impact on Corruption Control

The thesis investigates the relationship between digital transformation and corruption control in public administration, adopting a global-local perspective. It begins by framing corruption as a complex phenomenon, discussing its main definitions, measurement challenges, and the evolution of anti-corruption policies in the Italian context. The thesis then develops a bibliometric analysis to reconstruct the evolution of the literature on corruption, technological innovation, and digitalization, highlighting the main research trajectories and the remaining gaps, particularly with regard to the heterogeneous effects of technology, the role of organizational capabilities, and the importance of institutional and contextual conditions. The empirical analysis is developed at two levels. The first adopts a cross-country perspective and examines the association between e-readiness and corruption, showing that countries’ capacity to use digital technologies effectively is linked to better corruption-control conditions, especially in more mature institutional contexts. The second focuses on Italian municipalities, analysing how internal technological development within local administrations may affect the implementation of anti-corruption tools such as whistleblowing, civic access, and community monitoring mechanisms. The findings show that technology does not automatically reduce corruption levels. Digital solutions become effective only when they are embedded in administrative routines, internal control systems, information flows, staff competences, and accountability mechanisms. The thesis therefore contributes to public management studies by interpreting digitalization not as a mere technological endowment, but as a tool that can be effectively implemented only when supported by adequate organizational capabilities, human resource development, data quality, clear responsibilities, and coherent managerial procedures. From this perspective, digitalization can strengthen transparency, control, risk prevention, and public value creation.