Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book refers to a pragmatic understanding of corruption: from the perspective of the social actors in their concrete socio-historical situation, corruption is seen as problem-solving. It focuses on corruption in European countries are organized in a cluster model of modernization pathways. In fact, it is a reaction to the ineffectiveness of recent anti-corruption practices in Europe in recent years. In particular, in the northern nations characterized by protestant value ethics such as Sweden, England and Germany, actual cases of corruption were regarded as exceptions to the rule instead of structurally conditioned or even system-endangering anomalies. Poland had already embarked on the western path towards modernity with a capitalistic economy and parliamentary democracy. Beck's formula aims at a form of development which consists in a mere rationalization of traditions, having the effect that traditional forms of society are upheld in a modern disguise.