PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DIGITALIZATION AND CORRUPTION IN THE EU MEMBER STATES. A COMPARATIVE AND CORRELATIVE RESEARCH ANALYSIS

Effective digitalization of public administrations and economies requires rethinking of how e-govern-ment and digital services with increasing e-participa-tion can support corruption reduction and social de-velopment. This paper aims to study the interdepen-dencies and differences between the multidimensional phenomena of administrative corruption and digitalization in the EU member states. The research methods applied are Canonical Correlation Analysis and Principal Component Analysis. Ten relevant vari-ables for 2019 and 2020 were selected and integrated into this research. The research results showed that digitalization significantly improved the quality of public administrations and reduced corruption. The new composite index designed and determined for EU member states showed a vast gap between the Nordic and Eastern European countries. Our results confirm that the level of e-government was found to be the best predictor of control of corruption and government effectiveness suggesting that digitalized and less corrupt governments also made economies more competitive. The digitization of public administration and services is a strategic objective of EU member states and should become a priority in the new technological era.