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Arien Mack Editor’s Introduction OVER THE PAST MANY YEARS SO C IA L R ESEAR C H HAS BEEN committed to exploring pressing contemporary issues that character­ ize aspects of our social and political world as well as those that are enduring. This issue focuses on a subject that is both. Corruption, as the papers by Alan Ryan and James Jacobs illuminate, has been a corrosive part of political and social life for a very long time, and as many of the other papers in the issue make clear, it is an unfortunate part of our contemporary global and national life. So corruption seemed a topic ripe for discussion in our pages. The authors in this issue look at questions of what counts as corruption and the various kinds of corruption and their effects (Richard White, Bo Rothstein, and Debra Satz); the kinds of corruption that arise when services that once were provided by the government become privatized; the corrupting effects of the vast sums of money now routinely spent in political campaigns, (Sheila Krumholz); the character of corruption in postcommunist states (Leslie Holmes, Alena Ledeneva, and Michael Johnston); in China (Andrew Wedeman), and Latin America (Mark Ungar); corruption in labor unions (John Krinsky and James Jacobs); and how corruption can be reduced if not eliminated (Peter Eigen and Alina Mungiu-Pippidi). While there is much more that could be said, we believe the issue will give the reader a sense of what qualifies as corruption, its ubiquity both within and between states, and what actions have been taken to restrain it. It may never be eliminated, but by reducing it and thereby also reducing its devastating effects on whole populations, particularly on those without means, it is possible that we could have a more just society here and in the rest of the world. Editor’s Introduction xxiii ...

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