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Corruption
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What is Corruption?

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, and it appears as a subject of serious academic inquiry across political science, criminology, business ethics, literature, history, and public policy courses. Students are drawn to it because corruption operates at every level of society — from individual actors in government and business to institutional failures within religious organizations and international markets. Its reach makes it a compelling lens for examining how power shapes human behavior and how societies attempt to maintain integrity against self-interest. Literary works such as The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, and Julius Caesar are among the texts students use to trace how these dynamics appear even in canonical fiction.

The papers archived on this topic take a wide range of approaches. Comparative analyses weigh corruption against integrity by contrasting specific countries, such as Afghanistan and Somalia against Denmark. Historical essays examine institutional decay, including the Catholic Church's corruption between the 1100s and 1500s. Policy-focused papers analyze legislative responses like the NYS Public Authority Accountability Act, while business-oriented work investigates how corruption affects capitalism, foreign investment, and corporate behavior in markets like Russia. Some papers focus on specific domains such as sports or urban communities, showing how corruption surfaces in both formal institutions and social settings.

A strong essay on corruption begins with a clearly bounded thesis — specifying the actor, institution, or system under examination rather than treating corruption as a vague, universal force. Evidence drawn from documented case studies, policy records, or textual analysis carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is conflating correlation with causation, particularly when arguing that power automatically leads to corruption without accounting for the structural conditions and individual choices that make it possible.

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Essay Doctorate

Direct Democracy and Liberty in Contemporary Politics

Is direct democracy desirable and/or possible today? The question is addressed first theoretically, with reference to Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, which actually categorizes direct democracy as one of the corruptions into which a democratic system can descend, by an insistence on too much egalitarianism. Direct democracy is considered as an ideal, which is desirable insofar as it offers a critique of contemporary politics, but whose possibility is limited by whether or not it can be feasibly implemented. Two contemporary case studies are brought in to examine the question further: the experiment with internet-organized direct democracy in Estonia, and the experiment with social-media-inspired direct democracy in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Paper then offers an answer to a second essay question about conceptions of freedom in contemporary liberal democracy.

Research Paper Doctorate

History of U.S. Criminal Justice and Policing Systems

History U.S. Criminal Justice Systems/Police

Paper Undergraduate

Chaucer's Friar and Summoner: Satire of Church Corruption

In the Canterbury Tales, the Friar's Tale and the Summoner's Tale are intended to be satires about the corruption of the church in the Middle Ages, and would have been considered comedic by the audience, but also as being quite close to the truth. Chaucer was very likely sympathetic with the early-Protestant Lollards and Reformers and intended this to be a humorous commentary on "the abuse that infected the medieval church" (Hallissy 138). Although the Friar and the Summoner work for the church, neither of them is even a remotely holy man, and their reasons for being on the pilgrimage are purely material rather than religious. Both of these characters equally corrupt and venal and have no real spiritual values but only an urge to satisfy their appetite for money (Pearsall 166).

Research Paper Doctorate

Oedipus the King: Character Flaw Over Fate in Sophocles

Oedipus is one of the most famous names in Greek mythology. His name has become both a psychological complex as well as a familiar joke. His story has come to be a synonym as well for the capriciousness of fate.

Thesis Undergraduate

Propaganda in the Russian Revolution and Civil War

All parties involved in the Russian Revolution and civil war used black, gray and white (open) propaganda constantly during this period to rally supporters to their cause and denounce enemies, including the Germans,…

Paper Undergraduate

Spanish Conquest of the Aztecs: Primary Source Analysis

The Aztec chronicler who wrote the account of the Spanish conquest notes that, from the start, the Spaniards had come to make war, but does not give much account of Motecuhzoma's psychological motivations for…

Research Paper Doctorate

Selling U.S. Nuclear Technology: Pros and Cons Examined

The sale of United States nuclear technology to other countries has gained more criticism, especially in light of the September 11 attacks and the current war against Iraq. Despite these security concerns, however, many…

Imagery and Allegory in Paradise Lost, Book I

Paradise Lost Book I is tells the story of Satan's exile from heaven. This four page paper helps illustrate Milton's creative use of imagery and metaphor in this story. It offers an analysis of how heaven and hell are contrasted, how Satan and the rebel army are depicted, and how Milton advances the story by appealing to the five senses. Excerpts from Book I are included.

Research Paper Doctorate

The Strategic Role of the CIO in Enterprise Business Systems

Enterprise-Level Business Systems: Assessment

Research Paper Doctorate

Mao's Cultural Revolution and the East Asian Ideal vs. Reality

This paper analyzes the history of East Asia using the thesis that the nations in this part of the world abandoned their respective heritages in the modern era and turned towards a "democratic," "revolutionary," or "communist" model of society and culture--to their individual perils--betraying their own cultural identity and setting up false ideals, laws, and models that were belied by the brutal reality of the nations' annihilation.

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