It is often taken for granted that politics in developing countries is more corrupt than that in developed areas. But, corruption does not disappear as societies develop and modernize; it coalesces at different levels of activity. While it appears at various levels and in numerous forms in developing countries (vote-buying among the public and in legislatures, clientelism, patronage, slush-funds, etc.), it is less a phenomenon of the mass public in developed countries. Here, the political and business classes engage in activities such as collusion and wholesale vote-buying (large campaign donors buying off candidates and, thereby, buying all of the candidate's voters). This paper argues that the corruption present in developing areas is qualitatively - but not necessarily quantitatively - different from that in the developed world and that a tipping point including education, independent economic opportunities, and type of political competition generates a shift from the former to the latter.
