Fighting corruption throughout history from ancient times to the modern era

This is the first part of the book "Fighting Corruption Throughout History: From Ancient Times to the Modern Era" (its second part will be published in the next issue), and the book in both parts is the first major comparative study of how societies and authorities in European and outside European history define legitimate authority in terms of fighting corruption and designing specific mechanisms to implement this agenda. Today, corruption is widely regarded as one of the most urgent issues facing us as a global society, as it undermines trust in government and financial institutions, economic efficiency, the principle of equality before the law, and human welfare in general. Corruption represents a major obstacle to the "road to Denmark" — an initial plan for building a stable and successful state. Although the topic of corruption and anti-corruption efforts has attracted the attention of politicians, scholars, NGOs, and global media, little attention has been paid to the relationship between corruption and the development, change, and implementation of anti-corruption policies across time and space, with the accompanying diversity in how corruption is defined, discovered, and combated. Economists, political scientists, and policymakers have generally been content with tracking the differences between low-corruption and high-corruption countries today, and then categorizing them into various classifications and indicators. However, the long-term social, political, economic, and cultural trends that could influence the standing of countries included in those indicators still play a highly significant role. Such a historical approach can help explain major moments of change in the past, which in turn may support or undermine the unfounded concepts and facts we have today about the reasons for the success or failure of certain anti-corruption policies and their relation to a country's image as more or less corrupt. Precisely this scientific gap is what the book in our hands seeks to bridge. Authored by: Ronald Crozier, André Vitoria, J. Giltner Translated by: Ihab Abdel Rahim