Thinking About Political Corruption

Peter deLeon argues that while it is often individuals who actually engage in political corruption, it is the US political system that condones or encourages such actions. Once this perspective is recognised, one can begin to understand ways in which the costs of corruption might be alleviated.

Peter deLeon is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Colorado-Denver. Previously he taught at Columbia University and spent a dozen years on the staff of the RAND Corporation. Dr. deLeon has specialized in policy research on issues of technology development, assessment, and utilization, with substantive expertise in national security and energy. He has also written extensively on the public policy processes, especially program implementation, evaluation, and termination, and served as the editor of the leading journal in the field, Policy Sciences. He has twice been named his school’s outstanding research scholar; in 1989, he received honorable mention as the University’s outstanding research scholar. An adviser to the European Center for Social Welfare (Vienna), the Swedish Colloquium for Advance Study in the Social Sciences, and the Science Center (West Berlin), as well as an invited lecturer in the People’s Republic of China, his work has been accorded international recognition. He has been awarded grants from the Ford Foundation, the Alfred J. Sloan Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Asia Foundation, and the Swedish Bicentennial Fund.