The Continuing Saga of Municipal Reform

Abstract

Governmental responses to corruption are embedded in urban politics and public administration. Rather than attempting a general theory of official corruption in local government, the authors present a case study of New York City's response to a severe corruption scandal in the late 1980s. They show how public administration is driven by responses to scandals and attempts to deter them. Ethics reform from the Progressive Era to the present fit into three ideal-typical anticorruption strategies. The authors explain how these strategies have changed over time and focus particularly on the increasing dominance of the crime-control strategy.