Corruption and Campaign Funding: A Burkean Perspective

Edmond Burke based his 1780 plea for economic reform on a notion of political corruption that he touched on only in few additional letters and addresses of the time. It was soon eclipsed by other “burning” questions that occupied his mind, and remains among his less developed and less studied ideas. It nevertheless merits attention. As a pragmatic politician with a philosophical bent, his main aim in the speech on reform was to sway the politics of his time; yet his deductive reasoning led him to generalizations that may point to a possible direction by which we can look for solutions to some of the problems that beset current understandings of corruption. Of special interest in this context is his treatment of situations where widespread perception of corruption exists without any massive lawbreaking. In what follows I will argue that Burke’s conception stakes a midway position between the older, “classic” views of corruption, and the thought of the 18th century liberals that informs our current perceptions of the phenomenon. Both received ample attention in the literature. Nevertheless, a brief note may serve as context for the consideration of Burke’s ideas on the subject.