Sovereignty has traditionally been seen as a term carrying internal meaning and universal appliance. To what extend is such a view still valid has been a matter of furious academic debate focused mainly on the question about the nature of the contemporary world and of the kind of its components. Accordingly, it remains highly controversial to what extend does the state have the potential to defend its role as the steam engine of political authority and power in a multilayered world. The relationship between sovereignty and globalization is at the core of the debate. The ideas that are shaping modern world rely mainly on the divisibility and openness of sovereignty rather than conforming with traditional norms of the term such as discreteness and indivisibility. Thus sovereignty although retaining its importance to understanding modern world is increasingly becoming part of a diversified global governance toolkit linked to crisis management.

Corruption is commonly believed to have evolved from a pure domestic problem to a global challenge to democracy, free market and human rights. Beyond any doubt corruption affects and is being affected by political institutions on national and international level. Indeed the ability to fight corruption and the degree of prevalence of corruption has often evolved to a pivotal criterion for the evaluation of the democratic, transparent and open character of every national regime and an assessment tool of the rule of law in each country. Political accountability and the provision of public goods, democracies, parliamentary systems, political stability, and freedom of press are all associated with the ability to combat and reduce corruption. The determinants of corruption – in particular related to good governance and rule of law – are critical to the contemporary concept of sovereignty.

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