ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the purpose of the book: to investigate how public administration becomes corrupt and which reforms are best suited to restoring the ideal of public service. The authors will use corruption as a point of entry to understanding the deep institutional and systemic problems that surround corruption and to exploring broader questions about participation, justice, and accountability. After a general overview of governance corruption and exchange corruption, the chapter discusses the impact of corruption on society through different types of organization and corruption, and the difference between economic values and public values in light of the New Public Management that arose at the end of the 20th century. The chapter introduces the argument that anti-corruption campaigns too often focus on rooting out exchange corruption while neglecting very damaging governance corruption, and on using law enforcement approaches to fight individual corruption transgressions rather than values-based approaches aimed at shaping ethical behavior. The plan of the book is laid out at the end of the chapter.
