Understanding and Combating Global Corruption: A Reader

Understanding and Combating Global Corruption: A Reader provides students and anti-corruption thinkers and activists with a collection of essays by accomplished scholars and thinkers from around the world. The essays challenge readers to think through issues associated with global corruption, in both commerce and government, with reference to particular forms of corruption such as bribery and fraud, as well as to systemic or systematic abuses of power or authority.

In the opening reading, students learn that the term "corruption" has a broad definition that is not limited to quid pro quo transactions, but can also involve betrayals of trust and failures to render honest services on behalf of stakeholders. Additional readings examine the various forms of corruption that have developed within the United States throughout the country's history, and how that corruption was mitigated or ablated by government officials acting in the public interest. Students explore cases of corruption from other countries, including Brazil and Nigeria. The text closes with a philosophical argument that a "whole-of-society approach" could help countries move toward eradicating corruption.

Featuring enlightening and thought-provoking readings, Understanding and Combating Global Corruption is an ideal resource for courses in business and professional ethics.

David E. McClean is the founder and president of Business and Government Ethics International and has been a consultant to financial services firms since 1992 in the areas of enterprise risk and regulatory compliance through his consultancy, The DMA Consulting Group. He is a senior lecturer at Rutgers University, where he teaches courses in business and professional ethics, general ethics, and environmental philosophy and ethics. He is the author of Richard Rorty, Liberalism and Cosmopolitanism and Wall Street, Reforming the Unreformable: An Ethical Perspective. He is the editor of The Integrated Ethics Reader: Reconnecting Thought, Emotion, and Reverence in a World on the Brink.