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AbstractWhat explains the rapid expansion of programmes undertaken by donor agencies which may be labelled as 'anti‐corruption programmes' in the 1990s? There are four schools of anti‐corruption project practice: universalistic, state‐centric, society‐centric, and critical schools of practice. Yet, none can explain the expansion of anti‐corruption projects. A 'complexity perspective' offers a new framework for looking at such growth. Such a complexity perspective addresses how project managers, by strategically interacting, can create emergent and evolutionary expansionary self‐organisation. Throughout the 'first wave' of anti‐corruption activity in the 1990s, such self‐organization was largely due to World Bank sponsored national anti‐corruption programmes. More broadly, the experience of the first wave of anti‐corruption practice sheds light on development theory and practice—helping to explain new development practice with its stress on multi‐layeredness, participation, and indigenous knowledge. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.