Although the study of corruption has received increasing attention over the past decades, the theoretical progress of its earlier years has been relegated to a passive comment in most quantitative studies, resulting in an underdeveloped field as a whole. To address the persistent gap in theory, this paper explicitly adopts a currently prevalent definition of corruption—i.e. the abuse of entrusted power for private gain—and explores its meaning, nature, and theoretical evolution from the earliest human bands to the present era. The arguments analyzed here suggest that corruption may be understood in a more productive way by reference to the level of political agency enjoyed at any given time and place, which explains why the content and interpretation of corruption remains extremely fluid, and also allows us to associate the moral meaning of different deviant acts to potential improvements in compliance and integrity approaches. Thus, the analysis and conceps developed aim to support a more grounded comparative research and the potential identification of social patterns which sustain corruption tolerance.
