Corruption

The purpose of this chapter is to apply some core general principles of institutional and evolutionary political economy to corruption as a global, regional and national phenomenon. We start with the principle of historical specificity, where the known history of corruption processes and concepts are examined. We follow the classical scholars of ancient Greece and numerous others who had a systemic view of the matter; through to micro views of Roman law, Adam Smith and others who took an individualist view of corruption; and onto the reemergence of corruption discourse through the 1970s–2010s, initially with a micro perspective but increasingly taking a ‘modern classical view’ of systemic corruption. The principles of innovation and policy/governance are applied to an innovative corruption analysis for academic and policy purposes. The principle of contradiction presents corruption as the promotion of the vested interests against the common good in the form of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, state capture, nepotism, extortion, etc. The principle of heterogeneous groups and agents utilizes social dominance theory vis-à-vis dominant and subordinate groups, and the styles of corruption activated by elites are surveyed as they gain resources, favors and economic surplus against the interests of the common people. We also Lastly, scrutinize the principle of hegemony and uneven development vis-à-vis four stylized facts about corruption throughout the world in relation to [i] development patterns, [ii] corporate corruption, [iii] key sectors/nations and [iv] inequality. The fourth stylized fact [iv] inequality uses the principle of circular and cumulative causation (CCC) to analyze “internal uneven developments” within nations. The principles provide a framework for reducing systemic corruption and modifying the structure of power to benefit the common good, socioeconomic performance and functioning of institutions.