ABSTRACT
Corruption introduced, corruption defined, and corruption related to the discipline of geography paves path to characterisation and description. As to the infective, invasive and potentially life threatening character of corruption, to resume the analogy, there is more consensus. Grand corruption was not unknown in some colonial empires and at some periods, eighteenth century India for example, but in the larger European empires and at the height of their powers there was rather a strong tradition of expatriate bureaucratic honesty. J. T. Noonan claims that the concept begins with George Washington. It is an embryonic and particular version of the functionalist account and defence of political corruption. Corruption is evident in almost every branch of government in almost every third world country, in appointments to and promotions within the public service, in awarding contracts, in law enforcement, in economic planning, in the regulation of commercial activity by licences, and in day-to-day interaction between citizen and government.
