Corruption is a concept/practice common to most societies across time and space and as such is an intrinsically interdisciplinary subject. Corruption is of concern to anyone interested in governance, both in the present and in the past, and therefore a key theme for political scientists and historians. But it is not merely political. It is of intrinsic interest to economists and lawyers, and also provides a key metaphor for explaining almost any kind of decay: moral, linguistic, national, natural and medical world. Corruption also provides a major theme in literature and the desire to combat corruption excites imagined Utopias as well as reforming visions and practices. The interconnections between these types of corruption have seldom been explored and corruption has a long and rich history that has yet to be comprehensively written. It is also a subject that should have a considerable ‘impact’ on contemporary policy discussions.

The interdisciplinary Corruption Network brings together colleagues from across the university who share an interest in corruption, irrespective of time and place. Our members include researchers from history, political science, law, and economics. The Network invites scholars from outside Warwick to discuss their work with us, and gives an opportunity for internal speakers, at all stages of their career, to get feedback on their research. The Network also seeks to inform members about relevant events elsewhere, publications and resources.

Past Events

Wednesday 19th October 2016 at 5.00 in the IAS Seminar Room, Milburn House

The Corruption Network is holding a discussion group on two papers by historians currently visiting the Department of History:

Viviana Mellone (Naples) "Public opinion and political identities during the 1848 revolution in Naples: the public discourse on corruption"

Roland Kroeze (Amsterdam), "The rise of the 'modern' corruption discourse? Dutch early modern and modern corruption in European perspective"

Copies of the papers and other relevant reading will be available here and Naples

Bo Rothstein, title tbc,. IAS 16 March 5-7 2016 5.00
In association with the corruption network (see here for recommended reading ch 5 and 6)

Laurence Cockroft, Mark Knights and Mark Philp 'What is Corruption' in Warwick's Festival of the Imagination October 17, 2015, 12.15-1.15, Arts Centre Cinema.

Paul Heywood, University of Nottingham,Wednesday, January, 27th: 4.00-6.00
Room: S0.21 - Linked with PAIS and the corruption network

• 5 May, 2015 Professor Susan Rose-Ackerman, Yale University, Are Corrupt Elites Necessary for Corrupt Countries?

  Professor Rose-Ackerman's forthcoming review piece on Political Corruption is available here.

• 27 May 2015 Joint with PAIS, Professor Paul Heywood, University of Nottingham on

• Corruption in Africa, with David Anderson, Dan Branch, and Mark Philp, Wolfson exchange: 3 December 2014: 5pm
• Probity and Corruption in 18th Century Trade
  Half-Day Workshop, 2pm-6:30pm, 28 May 2014, Radcliffe House, University of Warwick
  The workshop brings together analytical approaches to corruption in relation to markets and forms of exchange with the historical study of trading organisations in the early modern period.
  Speakers: Margot Finn (UCL), Perry Gauci (Oxford), Felicia Gottmann (Warwick), Hanna Hodacs (Warwick), Mark Knights (Warwick), Mark Philp (Warwick), Nicholas Wilson (Yale), Simon Middleton (Sheffield), James Shaw (Sheffield), Patric Winton (Uppsala).

• Engaging Citizens in Fighting Corruption in the EU: Half-Day Workshop, 7 February 2014, IAS: Jointly Organised by IAS Corruption Network, Law Faculty and the European History Research Centre, University of Warwick,

  The aim of the workshop was to evaluate citizen engagement at the level of the European Union and in the United Kingdom. It brought together distinguished academics and Ph.D. students to discuss policy development and empirical findings about engaging citizens’ participation against corruption.

• Towards Intelligent Accountability

  27 January 2014 Kellog College Oxford Held in association with Kellogg College, Oxford. The workshop was arranged at short notice in the light of discussions being held in the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) about the literature on misconduct and corruption in public office, and the implications this has for how we think about the nature of training in ethical aspects of public office for public servants and politicians. The workshop drew in people from a number of sectors of public life and from academe, including Mark Knights who heads the University of Warwick’s Corruption Network. The discussion contributed to the Secretariat of the CSPL’s thinking about ethics and training, and was followed up with a meeting of academics with the CSPL to discuss training.