THE railway boom after the American civil war ushered in a period when corruption was endemic. Railway companies bribed members of Congress to pass their bills. Towns bribed the companies to bring their tracks closer, and railway owners manipulated company shares to line their pockets. But as the economy boomed and government regulation tightened, the tide of corruption receded so that the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt came to be remembered for philanthropy, not graft.
Most developed countries have passed through similar sleazy phases, giving rise to the widespread view that corruption is simply a stage countries go through – much…
