Corruption: A Very Short Introduction

Corruption is one of the biggest global issues, ahead of extreme poverty, unemployment, the rising cost of food and energy, climate change, and terrorism. It is thought to be one of the principal causes of poverty around the globe. Its significance in the contemporary world cannot be undervalued.

In this Very Short Introduction, Leslie Holmes looks the history of corruption across the millennia and considers why the international community has only highlighted it as a problem in the past two decades. Holmes explores the phenomenon from several different perspectives, from the cultural differences affecting how corruption is defined, its impact, its various causes, and the possible remedies. Providing evidence of corruption and considering ways to address it around the world, this is an important introduction to a significant and serious global issue.

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Leslie Holmes is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Melbourne; and a recurrent visiting professor at the Graduate School of Social Research in Warsaw, the University of Bologna, and the People's University in Beijing. He has also taught at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna and at intensive workshops on corruption in Belgrade and Sofia. His principal research specializations are corruption, communism, and post-communism. He has either authored or edited 14 books and numerous articles and book chapters. His publications include Rotten States? (Duke UP, 2006), Communism (OUP, 2009), Post-Communist Democratization (co-authored with John Dryzek - CUP, 2002), and two edited collections, Terrorism, Organised Crime, and Corruption (Elgar, 2007) and Trafficking and Human Rights (Elgar, 2010). He has been a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia since 1995.