Product Description

The issue of public corruption typically provokes two reactions: why does it occur and how can it be stopped? Implicit in these responses is the assumption that the absence of corruption is both right and normal.

In "Public Corruption: the Dark Side of Social Evolution", Professor Robert Neild challenges this view, and states that the opposite is in fact the truth. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, and examples from contemporary politics from around the globe, Neild demonstrates that it is, rather, the "uncorrupt" government that is exceptional -- and never totally achievable. By exploring how corruption has been suppressed, and why we pursue the ideal of uncorrupt government, Neild's insightful analysis moves us to a clearer understanding of the forces behind public corruption, and provides new means of tackling it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1526259 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

Review

About the Author
Robert Neild is a retired professor of economics and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. During a career that included two spells in Whitehall and also spells in India, Papua New Guinea, Sweden, the United States and the United Nations Secretariat, working on many areas of policy, he became interested in problems of public administration, including corruption. He was a member of the Fulton Committee that in 1968 proposed major reform of British civil service. He has served on the Secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Europe and has held posts in the UK Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and at the MIT Center for International Studies, India Project. A former Deputy Director of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, he was a founding Director of the renowned Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and has held other influential posts in commerce and in advisory bodies. He has written on many subjects including economics, military strategy and arms control, and, most recently, the history of the oyster in England and France.