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Book Details
Abstract
'Public Corruption' is a stimulating and entertaining book about a daunting problem: the influence on public corruption of the changing nature of warfare. It will be of as much interest to the general reader and those around the seats of power as it is to historians and social scientists. The quality of the writing alone makes it a delight to read.
Throughout history, public corruption has been endemic. Exceptionally, it was significantly suppressed in modern times in northwestern Europe. Why did that happen? Why did politicians introduce measures that acted against their own interests? And are the political forces that then induced reform alive in today's world? Neild explores these highly topical questions by looking at the suppression of corruption in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in four countries – France, Germany, Britain and the USA; at the evolution of independent judiciaries; at developments in the twentieth century, including a reminder of how widely corruption was used as a weapon in the Cold War, particularly in the Third World. Finally, and most devastatingly, he analyses the rise and decline in standards of public life in Britain in the twentieth century.
Robert Neild is a retired Professor of Economics and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. During a career that included two spells in Whitehall and also spells in India, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA, working on many areas of policy, he became interested in problems of public administration, including corruption.
'Anyone who is concerned about the mounting epidemic of global corruption should read this original and forthright book.' —Anthony Sampson, author of 'The Arms Bazaar'
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Matter | 1 | ||
| Half Title | 1 | ||
| Title | 3 | ||
| Copyright | 4 | ||
| Dedication | 5 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 7 | ||
| Table of Contents | 9 | ||
| Main Matter | 13 | ||
| Chapter 1. Introduction | 13 | ||
| Chapter 2. General | 17 | ||
| The Definition of Corruption | 17 | ||
| An Analytical Framework | 21 | ||
| Social Forces | 22 | ||
| Mechanisms of Reform | 24 | ||
| Runciman's Approach | 25 | ||
| The Problem of Taxation | 29 | ||
| Recapitulation | 31 | ||
| Chapter 3. Prussia/Germany | 33 | ||
| The Prussian Achievement | 37 | ||
| The Prussian Reaction to the French Revolution | 38 | ||
| Reforms to the Judiciary and Bureaucracy | 42 | ||
| Conclusion | 44 | ||
| Chapter 4. France | 45 | ||
| The Flawed Fiscal System | 45 | ||
| Attempts at Reform | 49 | ||
| The Revolution and Reform | 53 | ||
| Conclusion | 56 | ||
| Chapter 5. The United States | 57 | ||
| Narrative History | 58 | ||
| The Spoils System | 59 | ||
| Civil Service Reform | 60 | ||
| The Political Machine | 63 | ||
| City Politics | 64 | ||
| Reform | 67 | ||
| Conclusion | 70 | ||
| Chapter 6. Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries | 71 | ||
| The Background | 71 | ||
| The Fiscal System | 72 | ||
| Fiscal Reform | 75 | ||
| England after the Napoleonic Wars | 79 | ||
| The Reform of the Civil Service | 81 | ||
| Conclusion | 85 | ||
| Chapter 7. Britain's Indian Connection | 87 | ||
| The Background | 87 | ||
| The Task of British Government in India | 90 | ||
| The Struggle to End Patronage | 91 | ||
| Patronage Debated | 100 | ||
| The Ideal of Public Service | 102 | ||
| Chapter 8: The Evolution of Independent Judiciaries | 109 | ||
| France and Germany | 110 | ||
| France | 111 | ||
| Prussia/Germany | 115 | ||
| England | 119 | ||
| Malpractice in the Courts | 120 | ||
| The Impeachment of Lord Macclesfield | 122 | ||
| The Basis of the English Judiciary's Independence | 127 | ||
| The Judges | 129 | ||
| The United States | 131 | ||
| Conclusion | 136 | ||
| Chapter 9. The Twentieth Century | 137 | ||
| The Start of the Century | 137 | ||
| Changing Values | 140 | ||
| The Changing Nature of Military Competition | 141 | ||
| The Effect of the Cold War in Advanced Countries | 145 | ||
| The Habit of Mendacity | 146 | ||
| The Cold War and Competition for Natural Resources | 148 | ||
| Bribery in The Arms Trade | 151 | ||
| The Internationalization of Government | 156 | ||
| The Position at the End of the Century | 158 | ||
| The Character of Recent Scandals | 160 | ||
| The Reaction to the Scandals | 161 | ||
| Conclusion | 163 | ||
| Chapter 10. Britain the First Half of the Twentieth Century | 165 | ||
| The Sale of Honours and Electoral Reform | 167 | ||
| Lloyd George's Excesses | 168 | ||
| The Inter-War Years | 170 | ||
| Assessment | 172 | ||
| The Mid-Century Peak | 173 | ||
| Chapter 11. Britain in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century | 177 | ||
| The Slide | 177 | ||
| La Fin de Siecle | 182 | ||
| The Law Against Corruption | 184 | ||
| Corruption and Politicians | 186 | ||
| Corruption and the Public Service | 191 | ||
| Assessment | 206 | ||
| Summary and Conclusion | 209 | ||
| Chapter 12. Recapitulation and Conclusion | 213 | ||
| The Observation of Corruption | 214 | ||
| Explanations | 216 | ||
| Implications for the Third World | 218 | ||
| End Matter | 225 | ||
| Appendix A: The Differences Between Private and Public Corruption and the Constraints on Them | 225 | ||
| The Definition of Corruption | 225 | ||
| Constraints on Corruption | 226 | ||
| Appendix B: Three Cases of Apparent Conflict of Interest in the Conduct of Officials | 229 | ||
| Sir Christopher Bullock | 229 | ||
| Air Vice Marshal Howard | 230 | ||
| Mr Hastie | 232 | ||
| Notes | 235 | ||
| Index | 253 |