Grassroots Conceptions of Political Corruption

This paper proposes that grassroots conceptions and experiences of political corruption provide valuable insights for research. It will argue that as local and other groups engage in and seek to influence democratic policy processes, which affect their lives or causes they stand for, they have a privileged (if partial) view/ experience of political corruption. Grassroots groups frequently invoke political corruption and their conceptualisations of it – what they understand by it, what it constitutes, how it works and what its implications are – are influential in shaping the public discourse. The empirical evidence for this paper is derived from interviews and observations and focuses on the experiences of the environmental movement in the UK: (1) local anti-fracking campaigners in Lancashire, who describe being locked out of processes in which they have a legitimate claim to participate; (2) the broader discourse within environmental groups through which opponents are identified not only as other interest groups (e.g. fossil fuel companies), but the system itself (i.e. the institutions of the state); and (3) the campaigning group Extinction Rebellion and its use of the term “corruption” to justify direct action, civil disobedience and ultimately the removal of authority from parliament to manage the climate crisis. This research suggests that individuals and groups can directly experience political corruption in specific loci at various interfaces of public and group engagement with the decision-making structures of the state. These actors play a role in informing and shaping public understandings of corruption and yet have been under-represented in academic approaches to the conceptualisation of political corruption.