Corruption and public values in historical and comparative perspective: An introduction

What are our public values? That question can perhaps best be answered by considering it in a deeper historical perspective. It is only through in-depth, case-by-case studies that we can hope to comprehend the meaning of public values and their change over time. In this regard, episodes of conflict are extremely important in discerning which public values are really salient, and how such values change as a result of such conflicts. We argue that public values, as they relate to corruption or other matters, are often only visible in moments of crisis or in moments of scandal. That is why we have focused on corruption cases that signal changes in the development of public values. These cases are almost always, by definition, “scandals,” states of affairs which generated public emotion and vigorous debate. “Scandals,” in contrast to “normal” corruption cases, are often indications of a changing mindset among key actors in the public sphere about the moral (un)acceptability of certain public practices. Most typically, scandals signal public moral opposition to practices to which hitherto had been considered acceptable or at least condoned. By analyzing such cases, and historically contextualizing them, we hope to come to better historical understanding of how the public values of the present day found their “genesis.”