Corruption and Campaign Funding: A Burkean Perspective

• Authors: Jonathan Mendilow
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Edmond Burke based his 1780 plea for economic reform on a notion of political corruption that he touched on only in few additional letters and addresses of the time. It was soon eclipsed by other “burning” questions that occupied his mind, and remains among his less developed and less studied ideas. It nevertheless merits attention. As a pragmatic politician with a philosophical bent, his main aim in the speech on reform was to sway the politics of his time; yet his deductive reasoning led him to generalizations that may point to a possible direction by which we can look for solutions to some of the problems that beset current understandings of corruption. Of special interest in this context is his treatment of situations where widespread perception of corruption exists with out any massive law- breaking. In what follows I will argue that Burkes conception stakes a midway position between the older, “classic” views of corruption, and the thought of the 18th century liberals that informs our current perceptions of the phenomenon. Both received ample attention in the literature. Nevertheless, a brief note may serve as context for the consideration of Burkes ideas on the subject.

Keywords

EN

corruption; camping funding; political corruption

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Studies of Changing Societies
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 2012
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 129-145

Dates

online

2014-11-05

Contributors

author

Jonathan Mendilow

• (USA) Rider University, Chairman of the Department of Political Science

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/scs-2014-0147