ABSTRACT
In "I Seen the My Opportunities and I Took 'Em: Political Corruption in the American States", the authors argue that federal prosecution of corrupt public officials was a good surrogate for the level of political corruption in the American states. They then re-create the four general models of political corruption (historical/cultural, political, structural, and bureaucratic). Based on the results of the models, the authors attempt to re-create a single "best" model to explain the variation in political corruption. Using the variables of the "best" model as control variables, they again examine the question of targeting, that is, the use of targeted prosecutions to harass political opponents. The authors determine whether or not prosecutions of public officials are linked to party control or the number of black elected officials. Finally, they discuss the implications of our findings for the study of political corruption.
