“… this timely and fascinating book … is a handbook for those interested in gaining perspective on the appearance of and actual corruption in the American system, and … can be read cover to cover to great profit … it will find its way into classrooms. Scholars will use it as a means to engage and extend many of its provocative findings. However it is used, the effort is well worth the time invested.” – Presidential Studies Quarterly

"This volume, edited by two well-respected professors of US politics, represents the fine effort of nearly a dozen scholars to tackle this challenging subject ... Several of the essays are especially illuminating ... an important contribution to the study of political corruption in the US. Recommended." - CHOICE

Michael A. Genovese received his PhD from the University of Southern California. He currently holds the Loyola Chair of Leadership Studies, is a Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount University. In 2006 Professor Genovese was made a Fellow Commoner at the Queens College, Oxford University. Professor Genovese has written sixteen books, including The Paradoxes of the American Presidency (co-authored by Thomas E. Cronin), Oxford University Press, 2nd ed 2004; The Presidency and the Challenges of Democracy (co-edited with Lori Cox Han), Palgrave, 2006; The Presidency and Domestic Policy (with William W. Lammers), CQ Press, 2000; The Power of the American Presidency 1789-2000, Oxford University Press, 2001; The Presidential Dilemma, Longman, 2nd ed. 2003, and; The Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, Facts-on File, 2004 (winner of the New York Public Library “Best of Reference” work of 2004). He has won over a dozen university and national teaching awards. Professor Genovese frequently appears as a political commentator on local and national television. He is also Associate Editor of the journal, White House Studies, has lectured for the United States Embassy abroad, and is editor of Palgrave Macmillan Publishing’s, “The Evolving American Presidency” book series. In 2004–2005 Professor Genovese served as President of the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association.

About Victoria A. Farrar-Myers

Victoria A. Farrar-Myers is professor of political science at University of Texas at Arlington. She holds a PhD from SUNY Albany, an MA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a BA from Russell Sage College.

Introduction: The Politics of Corruption and the Corruption of Politics (Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount University)

Chapter 1: Democracy without Politics? Hidden Costs of Corruption and Reform in America (Michael Johnston, Colgate University)

Chapter 2: Is Low Trust in Democratic Institutions a Problem of Corruption? (Mark Warren, University of British Columbia)

Chapter 3: Benevolent Skullduggery (John Parrish, Loyola Marymount University)

Chapter 4: Bending the Frame to Corrupt the Lenses: An Examination of Cognitive Science and Corruption (Wayne LeCheminant, Loyola Marymount University)

Chapter 5: Presidential Corruption: A Longitudinal Analysis (Michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount University)

Chapter 6: Corruption and Scandal in Washington: Have Lobbying and Ethics Reform made a Difference? (James A. Thurber, American University)

Chapter 7: When Justice is Not Blind: Corruption in the Courts (Christopher Shortell, Portland State University)

Chapter 8: Influence Peddling and Voter Suppression: Corruption in Contemporary Political Campaigns (Thomas A. Hollihan, University of Southern California)

Chapter 9: The Public and Political Corruption (Matthew J. Streb and April Clark, Northern Illinois University)

Chapter 10: Money for Nothing? The Politics of Reform, Actual Corruption, and the Appearance of Corruption (Victoria A. Farrar-Myers, University of Texas, Arlington)

Index