Corruption

Michael Pinto-Duschinsky

The term corruption is used with reference not only to politics and to public administration but also to personal life and to business. It may refer to the perversion of any accepted standard. Common usage also includes the corruption of language, as with the corruption—that is, unauthorized alteration—of a written text. The first section of this entry examines the main problems of defining the concept of corruption. A typology of political corruption and its patterns are discussed in the second and third sections; measures, explanations, effects, and possible cures for corruption are presented in the subsequent sections; and academic analyses versus practical actions is the final topic analyzed. Moral corruption refers to the state of an individual or an entire society in which virtues have been lost and citizens have become depraved and ruined by the pursuit of luxury and gratification. For example, what were seen as corrupt practices within ...

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