ABSTRACT
Corruption in public life – tax evasion, bribery, graft, nepotism and other forms of favouritism – is popularly understood to be backward, unenlightened and unjust, a waste of public resources and a brake on economic development. Here I will argue that much of what is normally labelled corruption is in fact the operation of a morally informed and concerned human intelligence. I will sustain this argument by examining a particular case, that of Spain, a country in which I have done long term anthropological field work.
