The Politics of Corruption: Two Competing Definitions

“In this paper I defend three hypotheses about corruption in South Africa, namely that:

1. the measure of corruption in South Africa is allied to a concept of the state – liberal and Leninist;
2. growing alarm about corruption suggests that on both liberal and Leninist accounts, corruption is increasing; and
3. growing corruption is evidence that the institutions of the state are weakening.

At the end of the paper I shall distinguish between three kinds of institutions: efficient, captured and weak ones.”