Date: 1993
Type: Article
Business politicians in Italy : some reflections on a study on political corruption in Italy
Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 1993, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 439-464
PIZZORNO, Alessandro, DELLA PORTA, Donatella, Business politicians in Italy : some reflections on a study on political corruption in Italy, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 1993, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 439-464
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71333
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Political corruption endangers the principles of transparency and political equality, that form part of the very basis of representative democracies. In particular it transforms the motivations and the skills that are necessary for a political career, and favors the distribution of business politicians, which the authors define as politicians that combine legal and business activities - and in general participation in political enterprises - with traditional political intermediation. The authors present some empirical results from a qualitative research (based on trial records, in-depth interviews, and the press) on political corruption in three Italian cities: Savona, Florence, and catania. The characteristics of the business politicians particularly emphasized are: politics as the only channel for vertical social mobility; the development of particular skills for illegal activity necessary for the organization of the corrupt exchange; and a capability for networking directed at acquiring complicities and tacit consent in important social circles. In the second part of the article, the authors define some conditions that reduce the moral costs of participation in illegal activities and, conversely, increase the diposition to participate in the corrupt exchange.
Additional information:
First published: September 1993
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/71333
ISSN: 0023-2653
Publisher: Springer
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