ABSTRACT
Corruption is an elusive phenomenon that is difficult to capture in a single crisp definition. Researchers have made numerous attempts to do so, but each has its own problems. One set of definitions conceptualizes corruption as deviation from some standard, such as the public interest, legal norms, or legal norms and moral standards sanctioned by the people. The second set associates corruption with system-level attributes, such as patrimonialism (as opposed to rational legal bureaucracy), primordial notions of the public interest (as opposed to the civic notion), or systems in which bureaucrats regard public office as a private business. The goal then is to examine the origins or persistence of systems that promote corrupt behavior.2
