海角大神

Defining 鈥榗orruption鈥� defines us

This year, young people from Mexico to Madagascar to Nepal have protested corruption. But what, exactly, is corruption? And what can a society do about it?

Nobody says they are for corruption.

Civil liberty groups decry it, politicians rail against it, and journalists pledge to unmask it. This year, young people from Mexico to Madagascar to Nepal have protested corruption, demanding that their leaders stop the practice that Fran莽ois Val茅rian, chair of Transparency International, called 鈥渁 key cause of declining democracy, instability and human rights violations.鈥�

But what, exactly, is corruption? And what can a society do about it?

It鈥檚 a beguilingly complicated question. As scholars Marco Garrido, Marina Zaloznaya, and Nicholas Hoover Wilson write in their upcoming book, 鈥淎 Comparative Historical Sociology of Corruption,鈥� the way that corruption is defined, and countered, says a lot about a society.

One response, they write, is a doubling down on common cultural values and norms 鈥� a recommitment to standards of behavior that 鈥渁ffirm a shared vision of social order.鈥� But there鈥檚 another response, they found, especially when traditionally liberal responses don鈥檛 seem to work 鈥� one that entails a move toward conspiracy theories, an 鈥渦s versus them鈥� polarization, and even autocracy.

The Monitor has been exploring this topic, with stories about everything from political behavior in Washington to the demands of Generation Z protesters around the world to efforts to track climate finance funds. In this week鈥檚 magazine, Linda Feldmann writes about President Donald Trump鈥檚 increasing wealth in office, while also noting that his predecessor鈥檚 relatives came under legal and congressional scrutiny 鈥渇or allegedly leveraging the [Biden] family name for financial gain.鈥�

Meanwhile, contributors Yuliana Ramazzini and Nelson Rauda Zablah explore a growing autocracy movement in Central America, which some analysts see as connected to increasing frustration about corruption.

These stories 鈥� and the concept of corruption overall 鈥� are worth contemplation, regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum. We hope you will read them, pause, and ponder. Labeling others as 鈥渃orrupt鈥� without thinking deeply about the meaning, or brushing off behavior that unfairly benefits the few, can have consequences that ripple across nations.

As Dr. Wilson explained to me, even before Mr. Trump, the legal understanding of corruption in the United States had 鈥渢aken us from the possibility of enforcing corruption laws against public officials 鈥� when they appear to have a conflict of interest 鈥� to considering 鈥榗orruption鈥� only when a cartoonish level of explicit bribery can be proven.鈥�

That, he says, 鈥渢akes us away from the common-sense idea that 鈥榗orruption鈥� represents a kind of moral violation that is embedded in a time, place, political system, and economy.鈥�