1. “It is hard for historians now,
looking back at the middle ages, to distinguish the bribe, which was in theory
illicit and morally tainted, from the gift, which was allegedly licit and
morally virtuous, in a world in which the exchange of oaths, of tokens of
wealth and of tokens of power was ubiquitous” (Jordan 2009, 205) .
2. “In the late twelfth and early
thirteenth century, sharper distinctions arose between licit and illicit giving
and receiving, loyalties were strictly circumscribed and punishments dictated
for breaching the rules.” (Jordan 2009, 207) .
3. The main features of these
anti-corruption campaigns in Europe included “increase in pecuniary benefits
and endowments (as long as the officials remained honest), recruitment of
people who had sworn vows of absolute poverty (like Dominicans) as well as
those whom the king knew personally, and intensive scrutiny along with full
governmental audits” (Jordan 2009, 210) .
4. “What happened in the thirteenth
century was not a fluke, but part of a broad ranging political and social
formation whose legacy, the notion that the state has a powerful interest in
transparency of transactions, is still with us” (Jordan 2009, 214) .
5. A major reason for such a widespread
campaign in 13th century was the impulse for the “moral regeneration
or the restoration of moral equilibrium in Europe”, immediately after the
crusade (Jordan 2009, 217) .
6. There are two major caveats in the
seemingly triumphalist picture of anti-corruption campaign – First being the
fact that “too much control on corruption actually impedes the efficient
operation of an administrative system” and secondly, “most of the so-called
tempters were the disenfranchised groups, who had a self-perceived moral right
– due to the unjustness of the laws they were subjected to – to induce a breach
of trust in a royal agent” (Jordan 2009, 218) .
7. “Bribery was a form of resistance.
The success of the anti-corruption campaign in thirteenth century was therefore
a hammer-blow to disadvantaged groups for which the ease of bribing or of
hiding bribes behind the congenial language of gift and service had been,
hitherto, something like a God-send, a true bestowal of Heaven’s grace” (Jordan 2009, 219) .
8. Own Sentence: Jordan’s article
problematizes the very notion of state intervention on corruption and questions
the extent to which such campaigns can be effective, without leading to
inefficient or unjust administration.
Bibliography
Jordan, William
Chester. "Anti-corruption campaigns in thirteenth-century Europe." Journal
of Medieval History (Elsevier) 35 (2009): 204-219.
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