Chapter 2 - Corruption and Integrity

Summary

Petty corruption breaks the rules, grand corruption writes the rules, cronyism basks in virtue. 1980s globalisation incited a corruption eruption in the periphery which spilled over back into the core in the 1990s. The United States narrowed its notion of corruption, which now engulfs politics, finance, law enforcement, and the Supreme Court. In Europe, an integrity revolution in the nineteenth century established impartial governance. It began under the ancien régime, and replaced patronage with expertise. Its ideal type of a Weberian bureaucracy, an elite corps of expert and honest administrators, was established in north-western Europe by 1870, and underpinned the capacity for war and constructive state action. Its efficiency was based on expert, impartial, and trustworthy competence. Official elites came into conflict with the forces of modernity, with democracy and the market. Their success led to over-extension, and the dilution of bureaucracy exposed it to its enemies.