ABSTRACT Anti‐corruption reforms grounded in the International Anti‐Corruption Consensus (IAC) consistently underperform across the Global South. While existing research attributes this to a design‐reality gap—a mismatch between reform assumptions and contextual realities—few studies have empirically mapped the specific discrepancies between local knowledge solicited during participatory processes and the policy designs that ultimately emerge. This article investigates the reality side of this gap using South Africa's National Anti‐Corruption Strategy 2020–2030 (NACS) as a case study. Employing Critical Frame Analysis (CFA) of nine provincial consultation workshops, supplemented by documentary analysis of the NACS and 19 semi‐structured interviews, the article compares local anti‐corruption perspectives with the measures adopted in the final strategy. The findings reveal a stark tension between paradigmatic rigidity and pragmatic hybridity. The NACS offers a paradigmatic state‐modernisation approach grounded in principal‐agent theory. Drawing on colloquial evidence and the lived experience of systemic corruption, local actors, by contrast, articulate a pragmatic hybrid perspective that recognises corruption as embedded in collective action dynamics, legal pluralism, and social norms. The article speaks directly to the concern in public administration and development studies research regarding how participatory procedures can simultaneously promise inclusion while producing epistemic marginalisation.
Thomas Duke Labik Amanquandor (Mon,) studied this question.