The Abuse of Entrusted Power for Private Gain: Meaning, Nature and Theoretical Evolution

Abstract

Although the study of corruption has received increasing attention over the past decades, the theoretical progress of its earlier years has been relegated to a passive comment in most quantitative studies, resulting in an underdeveloped field as a whole. To address the persistent gap in theory, this paper explicitly adopts a currently prevalent definition of corruption--i.e. the abuse of entrusted power for private gain—-and explores its meaning, nature, and theoretical evolution from the earliest human bands to the present era. As a result, this study finds that corruption can be understood in a more productive way by reference to the level of political agency enjoyed at any given time and place, thus allowing for a more grounded comparative research and the potential identification of social patterns which sustain corruption tolerance.