The Sociology of Corruption - Some Themes and Issues

The subject of corruption in British public life has been neglected as an area of sociological research. The object of this paper is to begin to develop a theorisation of corruption by examining some basic conceptual and methodological issues. It will be argued that Britain is not necessarily experiencing a rise in corruption, but a change in its actual nature. This is characterised in terms of a move from `primary' to `secondary' corruption. By continuing to employ a primary conceptualisation, there is a danger of developing a radically misinformed, even corrupt, perspective on the recent `rise' in corruption. An attempt is therefore made in this analysis to examine some structural and cultural features of this new wave of corruption and argue that secondary corruption is endemic with the `marketisation' of public services and the introduction of the New Public Management.