A Study On Anti-corruption Thought In American Constitution

Corruption is a tough problem facing different generations and poses a potential danger to human civilization. It is a great barrier in the development of different forms of society, which warps competition, destroys democracy and smirches national reputation. It is a discredit to the virtues of the public servants and harm to public interests. Compared with other human crimes like slave trade, corruption is more elusive to get rid of.In the long course of human history, people and governments never budge from fighting against corruption. People of America, well understanding the threat of corruption, attach great importance to keeping alert in ideology and checking it through practices such as legal reforms and special counter-measures. However, in a constitutional society like America, the highlight of such anti-corruption maneuvers lies in the supreme law—the Constitution.The thesis takes the original text of American Constitution as the research object and focuses on the embedded anti-corruption thought. Such a research can deepen our understanding of the embedded anti-corruption thought as well as the Constitution itself. And it will be of great benefit to the anti-corruption studies and practices in other nations.The definition of corruption has always been controversial in that different scholars have different interpretations. This thesis takes up Heidenheimer's conclusion of the various definitions put forward by the modern social scientists and divides them into three categories with respective emphasis on public position, market or public interest. The thesis just focuses on the political corruption and analyzes the anti-corruption thought not in economical, moral or ethnical but political sense.Then it analyzes the three main origins of corruption: power, economy and psychology; and it concludes that there are three inherent characteristics of corruption: undulation, diversity and pertinacity. And the historical review of...