The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

 
Please define "we," Professor.

Prof. John J. Wallis writes:

It took seventy years, but the round of American state constitutional changes in the 1840s are the heart of what eliminated of systematic corruption.

American governments were so successful at eliminating systematic corruption that we no longer understand what the term corruption meant in the 1800's, nor do we worry about systematic corruption in our political system.

from his paper, "The Concept of Systematic Corruption in American History" (.pdf)

The above is just one of several (.pdf) fascinating (.pdf)papers (.pdf) providing invaluable glimpses of life in pre-Progressive Era/New Deal America, to be found on the website of the July 2004 conference, Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's History, on the National Bureau of Economic Research website.

posted by TiR at 8:23 PM