by Peter deLeon

About the author: Peter deLeon is a professor of public administration at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Numerous authors, political observers, and just plain folk have commented on the presence of corruption in American politics, usually with some admixture of Puritan outrage and world-weary cynicism. Alexis de Tocqueville to Walter Lippmann, Sinclair Lewis to Bob Woodward, Ida Tarbell to Mike Royko, Thomas Nast to Herblock—the list would be endless. Certainly one would not have to look too far for culpable individuals throughout American history and politics, but somehow, we would like to think that political manners and mores “back then”—when politics were hurley-burley, the press less attentive (or less intrusive, depending upon your perspective), and public servants not trained in “good government”&mdash...