THE FORMATION OF THE CONCEPT OF CORRUPTION IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS AND THE HISTORICAL-PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ANTI-CORRUPTION MECHANISMS
Keywords:
Corruption, divine justice, civic ethics, political accountability, Hammurabi’s laws, Athenian democracy, Roman law, Aristotle, Cicero, anti-corruption mechanisms.Abstract
This article examines the historical, philosophical, and legal roots of corruption in ancient civilizations. Using examples from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, it explores early anti-corruption mechanisms based on divine justice, civic morality, political accountability, and legal responsibility. The study draws on the works of Carlo Alberto Brioschi, Lisa Hill, Kellam Conover, Rotaru and others, as well as primary sources such as the Code of Hammurabi, Aristotle’s Politics, and Cicero’s De Officiis. The paper argues that anti-corruption efforts in antiquity relied not only on legal sanctions but also on moral and social controls.
References
The Code of Hammurabi — Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu /ancient/hamframe.asp
L.W. King (tr.). The Code of Hammurabi. Fordham University Sourcebook. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu /ancient/hamcode.asp
Martha Roth. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. SBL Press.
Raymond Westbrook. A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law. Brill.
Driver & Miles. The Babylonian Laws. Oxford University Press.
Ma’at — University College London Digital Egypt.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk /museums-static/digitalegypt/religion/maat.html
Jan Assmann. Ma’at: Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im Alten Ägypten.
Miriam Lichtheim. Ancient Egyptian Literature. University of California Press.
Erik Hornung. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt. Cornell University Press.
Britannica. “Ma’at and Egyptian Moral Order”. https://www.britannica.com /topic/Maat
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Athenian Democracy”.
https://plato.stanford.edu /entries/athens-democracy/
Mogens Hansen. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes.
Josiah Ober. Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens. Princeton UP.
David Stockton. The Classical Athenian Democracy. Oxford UP.
Paul Cartledge. Democracy: A Life. Oxford UP.
Aristotle. Politics. MIT Classics Archive.
http://classics.mit.edu /Aristotle/politics.html
Aristotle. Politics. Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. MIT Classics.
IEP. “Aristotle’s Political Theory”. https://iep.utm.edu /aristotle-politics/
Carnes Lord. Aristotle’s Politics. University of Chicago Press.
Cicero. De Officiis. Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
Cicero. De Re Publica. Perseus Digital Library.
Walter Miller (tr.). De Officiis. Loeb Classical Library.
IEP. “Cicero’s Moral Philosophy”. https://iep.utm.edu /cicero/
Malcolm Schofield. Cicero: Political Philosophy. Oxford UP.
Britannica. “Roman Law”. https://www.britannica.com /topic/Roman-law
George Mousourakis. Roman Law and the Origins of the Civil Law Tradition.
Andrew Lintott. The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford UP.
Jill Harries. Law and Crime in the Roman World. Cambridge UP.
Thomas McGinn. Roman Law and Society. Oxford UP.
Carlo Alberto Brioschi. A Short History of Corruption. Brookings.
https://www.brookings.edu /book/a-short-history-of-corruption/
Lisa Hill. Public Virtue: Civic Ethics in Historical Perspective. Oxford UP.
Lisa Hill. “Civic Virtue and Corruption in Classical Thought.” Wiley.
Mark E. Warren. “Political Corruption as Duplicitous Exclusion.” APSR.
Bo Rothstein & Jan Teorell. “What is Quality of Government?” Governance Journal.
Susan Rose-Ackerman. Corruption and Government. Cambridge UP.
Michael Johnston. Syndromes of Corruption. Cambridge UP.
Kellam Conover. “Institutional Accountability and Corruption.” SAGE Journals.
Rotaru, I. “Historical Institutionalism and Corruption Roots.” ResearchGate.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Political Corruption”.
https://plato.stanford.edu /entries/corruption
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
How to Cite
