Corruption as delegation wrongness

Abstract

This paper puts forward a novel view of political corruption. I argue that institutionalist views of political corruption cannot account for the political salience of the personal corruption of elected politicians. I defend a view of political corruption as delegation wrongness, i.e. as an additional wrong, consisting in the forcible transfer on the constituents of elected politicians’ moral and political wrongs. I claim that this view of political corruption as delegation wrongness suits an intuitive general notion of moral corruption and can give a better account of specific cases of politicians’ corruption in democratic regimes.