Few concepts have witnessed a more dramatic resurgence of interest in recent years than corruption. This book provides a compelling historical and conceptual analysis of corruption which demonstrates a persistent oscillation between restrictive 'public office' and expansive 'degenerative' connotations of corruption from classical Antiquity to 1800.

Bruce Buchan is a Political Theorist whose research traces the historical articulation and contemporary implications of key concepts. He is currently working on projects funded by the Australia Research Council on the intellectual history of asymmetric warfare, and on ideas of sound, noise and civility in the Enlightenment periodLisa Hill is Professor of Politics, School of History and Politics, University of Adelaide, Australia

Introduction 1. Conceptions of Political Corruption in Antiquity 2. Patronage, Politics and Perishability in Early Medieval Political Thought 3. From Baratteria to Broglio: The Perils of Public Office in Medieval and Renaissance Political Thought 4. Affection, Interest and Office in Early Modernity 5. Ideological Change in Eighteenth Century Britain 6. The Historical Vicissitudes of Corruption Conclusion