ABSTRACT
Most actions that are considered corrupt by norm enforcers within or critics outside a political system are basically varieties of exchange transactions. Depending on the technique employed, the transactions create varying degrees of specificity of obligation on the parts of the exchangers. Bribery is the most frequently cited technique of corruption, because it creates a very specific obligation on the part of the officeholder. The more that political exchange transactions engender specific obligations, the more they resemble the prototype of an economic transaction, which rests on a formal contract stipulating the exact quantities to be exchanged. The chapter discusses the four types of political obligation relationships characteristic of communities: the traditional familist (kinship) based system, the traditional patron-client-based systems, the modern boss-follower-based system, and the civic-culture-based system. For convenience in discussion the corrupt behaviors are arbitrarily grouped into three categories, those involving "petty," "routine," and "aggravated" corruption.
