ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to give a systematic description of the complex network of actors involved in corrupt exchange, and of the resources exchanged amongst them. In order to do so, I shall use, by way of illustration, the findings of research that I conducted in Italy on some cases of political corruption at local level.1 The research, which was based on legal documents and backed up by interviews, concentrated on some political scandals that emerged in the 1980s in three Italian cities. The first case studied concerns the allocation of contracts and the granting of licences in the construction sector, administered by city council or provincial administrations and the organisation responsible for the construction of lowrent public housing-Istituto Autonomo Case Popolari (IACP)-in the province of Savona. The second case concerns the acquisition, on behalf of the city council of Florence, of two buildings: the Albergo Nazionale and Villa Favard. Finally, the third concerns the purchase of medicine and pharmaceutical products by a public organisation responsible for National Health in Catania-the Unità Sanitaria Locale (USL) 35.2
ASSOCIATIONS IN CORRUPT EXCHANGE
Where corruption is widespread it often involves groups of administrators and businessmen, who between themselves negotiate the size of the bribe and the public resolutions to be taken, either directly or through the intervention of middlemen. The structure of exchanges appears as that shown in Figure 14.1.
