Chayes and Teachout on Corruption

Millions of people in the developing world encounter corruption every day, in the form of bribes they have to pay to go about their daily lives. But there’s an insidious form of corruption that permeates entire structures, including governments, which is often hidden in apparently legitimate activity. Carnegie Senior Fellow Sarah Chayes has been researching this form of corruption for the better part of a decade. She argues that in corrupt countries, kleptocratic networks involve not only government officials, but private industries and established criminal networks. In her recent report, When Corruption is the Operating System: The Case of Honduras, Sarah examines how the kleptocratic system functions in a case study on that country. Sarah joins Tom and Zephyr Teachout, author of Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United, and a democratic candidate in the New York gubernatorial race, for a discussion on corruption and power.

Sarah Chayes is internationally recognized for her innovative thinking on corruption and its implications. Her work explores how severe corruption can help prompt such crises as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation.

Zephyr Teachout is an associate professor of law at Fordham University.