ABSTRACT
Though corruption has been an ever-present part of American political life, analysts of American politics have not studied it systematically. This chapter offers a conceptual scheme which circumvents definitional problems that have posed such a roadblock to the systematic study of corruption. It also provides some attitudinal data about corrupt acts gathered from state senators across the United States and shows how scheme contributes to the analysis of this data. The scheme can help us understand why the leaders of a foreign country consider it proper to expect monetary kickbacks from large US corporations in exchange for a government contract, or to offer bribes to key members of the US congress in exchange for favorable treatment. The scheme can also be related to the definitions of corruption based on "illegal acts" or violations of the "public interest." Finally, some reasonable future research directions for the study of corruption are briefly discussed.
