ABSTRACT
Political parties pose a special dilemma. They are on the one hand the political structures that are most frequently linked to perceived patterns of political corruption. Yet they are also the components of political systems whose relationship to corruption phenomena academic analysts find most difficult to generalize about in a consistent and refutable manner. Some basic ingredients of corruption phenomena, such as the exchange of public goods for private advantage, are in many ways also the essence of what keeps parties in business. The consequences of Italian money political corruption scandals of the 1990s led to a more critical examination of pervasive practices of questionable exchanges involving parties in quite a few other European countries. The uncovering of exploitative connections involving parties was pursued with vigor also in France and Spain. A comparison of the developments in these three national settings constitutes the basis of the comparative article by Pujas and Rhodes.
