This edited collection looks at corruption in different arms of the British state, and calls for fundamental political change.

This book deploys a long-term account of political corruption in Britain to explain the phenomenon of corruption as it resides within the state and the contemporary problem of corruption denial among members of the political class. It aims to satisfy the concern about corruption and identify potential causes and significance. The book provides and account of definitions of corruption and how those definitions have changed over time. Throughout the succeeding chapters it discusses public life and how ethical considerations for public office holders have evolved over time. This book argues that corruption is not just a concern about politics and understanding corruption requires a multi-disciplinary approach: history; political science; sociology; anthropology and urban ethnography.

Mark Knights offers the first overview of Britain's history of corruption in office in the pre-modern era, 1600-1850. Drawing on extensive archival material, Knights shows how corruption in the domestic and imperial spheres interacted, and how the concept of corruption developed during this period, changing British ideas of trust and distrust.

Politicians, financiers and bureaucrats claim to believe in free competitive markets, yet they have built the most unfree market system ever created. In this Gilded Age, income is funnelled to the owners of property – financial, physical and intellectual – at the expense of society. Wages stagnate as labour markets are transformed by outsourcing, automation and the on-demand economy, generating more rental income while broadening the precariat. Now fully updated with an introduction examining the systemic issues exposed by Brexit and Covid-19, The Corruption of Capitalism argues that rentier capitalism is fostering revolt and presents a new income distribution system that would achieve the extinction of the rentier while encouraging sustainable growth.

The Bribery Act 2010 is the most significant reform of UK bribery law in a century. This critical analysis offers an explanation of the Act, makes comparisons with similar legislation in other jurisdictions and provides a critical commentary, from both a UK and a US perspective, on the collapse of the distinction between public and private sector bribery. Drawing on their academic and practical experience, the contributors also analyse the prospects for enforcement and the difficulties facing lawyers seeking asset recovery following the laundering of the proceeds of bribery. International perspectives are provided via comparisons with the law in Spain, Hong Kong, the USA and Italy, together with broader analysis of the application of the law in relation to EU anti-corruption initiatives, international development and the arms trade.

A hard hitting, brutally honest account of police work during the late 1960's and 1970's. Whilst explicit, it is often humorous, refreshing and equally unbelievable. In this ?rst book of a trilogy the author takes the reader through his early police service and in doing so reveals many working practices which in reality have become a culture of dishonesty, lies and often stupidity which has been accepted by the Government of the day, the judiciary and the public at large for many years. That is until the present day when it has all gone so wrong. Very, very wrong with the revelations of the Hillsborough Investigation, the Jimmy Savile Investigation, so many more and even 'Plebgate' when The Biggest Gang believed they were so powerful that evidence against Andrew Mitchell, a member of Her Majesty's Government left so many questions, yet to be answered. This book explains that such examples are not typical of a minority rogue element as being claimed but are a dishonest culture, born so long ago but allowed to fester and grow with the many examples and revelations which have continued until today with Hillsborough as only one shocking example.

Answering the calls made to overcome methodological nationalism, this volume is the first examination of the links between corruption and imperial rule in the modern world. It does so through a set of original studies that examine the multi-layered nature of corruption in four different empires (Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and France) and their possessions in Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. It offers a key read for scholars interested in the fields of corruption, colonialism/empire and global history. The chapters ‘Introduction: Corruption, Empire and Colonialism in the Modern Era: Towards a Global Perspective’, ‘“Corrupt and rapacious”: Colonial Spanish-American past through the eyes of early nineteenth century contemporaries. A contribution from the history of emotions’, and ‘Colonial Normativity? Corruption in the Dutch-Indonesian Relationship in the Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Centuries’ are Open Access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.