The Influence of Perception of Government Corruption and The Level of Control Corruption of Country on Citizen’s Perception for Compliance with Law: Multi-level Analysis using Individual and Country-level variables

The fairness of public officials, such as law enforcement officers and state institutions, is essential for realizing a transparent and ethical society. Public officials are expected by citizens to uphold relatively high standards of ethics, fairness, and trustworthiness. However, corrupt practices by public servants and state institutions continue to occur without being eradicated. These corrupt acts by public officials are one of the key factors contributing to an unfair and non-transparent society. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze how such corruption affects our society and to consider the establishment of policies or systems to address it. When public officials engage in corrupt behavior—such as performing duties in procedurally unfair ways—it significantly influences citizens' willingness to comply with the law. This study analyzes the issue not only through individual-level variables but also from a macro perspective through cross-national comparisons using country-level variables. As a result, the study found that the more severely individuals perceive corruption among public officials, the lower their inclination to comply with the law(individual-level variable). At the national level, the better a country is at controlling corruption, the higher its citizens’ perceived obligation to follow the law(country-level variables).