The Historical Vicissitudes of Corruption

Abstract

A variety of historical trends crystallising in the eighteenth century exerted pressure on the degenerative conception of corruption. Key among them was the emergence of the modern state, which was expanding rapidly and becoming more organised during this time. Additional pressures related to demographic changes such as population growth, urbanisation and increased specialisation, all of which undermined the virtue-focused approach. Further, the practical exigencies of security in large-scale societies, and the technological developments that met them, meant that corruption concerns associated with the loss of martial virtue no longer seemed relevant. Finally, the eighteenth century saw decisive changes in forms of rule, specifically the breaking down of the powers of the Crown and a shift in the understanding of where the main site of corrupt — or uncorrupt — activity lay. Corruption reformers were increasingly focused on the eradication of practices and institutions that would now qualify as public office corruption. It was not virtue that would solve the problems of modern, commercialising states and empires, but a solvent economy and codified rules about how a properly functioning modern state should operate.