In this chapter, a renowned historical case study is explored, focusing on the resurgence of the plague in 18th-century Europe. The center stage is occupied by the port of Marseille in this narrative, as a contaminated cargo ship from the Levant inadvertently brought back the dreaded disease. Despite the implementation of effective protective measures across Europe since the Renaissance, all existing protocols mysteriously managed to be evaded by this particular vessel and its valuable cargo. The rapid spread of the plague is argued by researchers to be directly attributed to an instance of “crime of the powerful.” It is emphasized by the authors that corruption, contrary to the prevailing notion that it is a victimless crime, can have devastating consequences in extreme cases like this, leading to tens of thousands of deaths.
TopIntroduction
“Historically, the crimes of the powerful have managed to avoid or escape criminalization and stigmatization (p. 21)”. Barak (2015)
If the literature review recognizes with great consensus the illicit nature of corruption and the link between the bribe giver and the bribe taker, there is on the other hand a debate on its impact on third parties and a fortiori on its supposed cost at the societal level. Based on a case of supposedly extremely serious corruption from the history of France, which had a great impact in Europe, the authors will demonstrate that the economic and societal cost of a mundane case of corruption can be considerable. The authors share the classic definition of Misangyi et al. (2008)“From an economic perspective, corruption generally is defined as the misuse of a position of authority for private or personal benefit (p.751)”.
As researchers in social science, it is not up to us to rewrite history, we are respectful of what has been judged: the first alderman of the city of Marseille (equivalent to the mayor), who was suspected for a while, was soon cleared of any wrongdoing, and the captain of the ship, who was quickly incarcerated, was finally released after three years in prison on remand for lack of evidence. By relying on the work of historians, we will try to demonstrate that there are many suspicions of corruption and that the impunity observed can be explained in terms of the “Crimes of the powerful” theory. We do not, of course, make a final decision on the debate, which would risk leading us into the realm of judicial error at best or revisionism at worst, but rather we intend to fuel it. Nevertheless, our conclusions are rather in the direction of a strong suspicion of organizational corruption initiated by the 4 owners of the ship's cargo, including the owner of the ship and the first alderman. The first section of this chapter will be classically devoted to the literature review, section two to the voyage of the ship ‘’le grand Saint-Antoine’’, section three to the death toll in Marseille and its consequences, and the fourth and final section to the scope of the case, and the prospects for future research
TopCorruption: A Phenomenon As Old As Human Society And Increasingly Well Known
The phenomenon of corruption is not recent; in 1984, John Noonan, federal judge for the State of California, stated: “Everybody does it: Romans and Visigoths, English and Africans, Catholics and Jews, Pagans and Protestants, Capitalists and Communists, Imperialists and Patriots”. But first things first, a definition of corruption needs to be addressed. From the two Latin words “cum” and “rumpere”, literally translated as breaking together, the first idea that appears is that corruption involves two people who act together in order to break something, be it the law or moral behavior. The following dictionary definitions show in different orders the following meanings; to break or destroy a whole; to spoil by decomposition; to deprave; to alter in a bad way; to gain something from someone through bribery. For many years, the phenomenon has been perceived in developing countries as a necessary evil, an unavoidable step to ease the growth of a country, facing a lack of bureaucracy and arguable governance (Rafay, 2021a, 2023a). This was the “grease the wheels” notion, as opposed to the “sand” that might block the system (Wei, 1999). The idea of corruption efficiency emerged (Aidt, 2003). Viswanathan (2008) in India even opposed the “warm nature of corruption” to the “coldness of bureaucratic rationality”.