ABSTRACT
The role and status of the public service should remain in focus as reformers consider additional anticorruption reforms. New York City is important to the study of the anticorruption project because of the variety and pervasiveness of both corrupt behavior and control efforts. Virtually all forms of misconduct can be found in the annals of New York municipal agencies, from Boss Tweed's gigantic New York County Courthouse swindle in the 1870s to conflicts of interest in the regulation of cable television in the 1990s. Likewise, all of the institutions, regulations and administrative procedures used for corruption control in the United States were either developed, or have been adopted, in New York City. A 1993 study of the New York City civil service found that reform had rendered city government ineffective and, ironically, subject to political manipulation—the worst of both worlds.
