POLITICAL-PARTIES, POLITICAL CORRUPTION, AND THE ECONOMIC-THEORY OF DEMOCRACY

Many prominent cases of political corruption in Western European democ racies have involved political parties, yet the link between theories of political parties and theories of political corruption has not been explored. This article seeks to examine this link from the perspectiv e of economic theories of democracy. It is argued that the economic mo del of parry organisation is liable to encourage corrupt behaviour on the part of politicians, and that modern party organisations are comin g to resemble this model, making political corruption more likely to e merge. It is suggested that this hypothesis finds some empirical suppo rt in the evidence of systematic corruption amongst Southern European socialist parties.