ABSTRACT
The basis of loyalty that allows for the development of a corrupt exchange varies from personal friendship to party membership. The degree of deviation from the norms can be more or less serious, according to standards set both by the law and/or by public opinion. The ceaseless scrambling for money dominated the day-to-day activities of many political leaders to such an extent that it is necessary to consider the corruption market in order to understand the real motivations behind public policy and action in Italy in recent decades. In this sense corruption appears both a cause and an effect of the serious political crisis that beset Italian democracy in the early 1990s. The past fifty years of Italian history has been marked by numerous sensational scandals, through which corruption has been brought to light. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
