LONG ESSAY | OCTOBER 2012
The Politics of Corruption: Two Competing Definitions
“In this paper I defend three hypotheses about corruption in South Africa, namely that:
- the measure of corruption in South Africa is allied to a concept of the state – liberal and Leninist;
- growing alarm about corruption suggests that on both liberal and Leninist accounts, corruption is increasing; and
- 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.”