The Politics of Corruption
Course Information
Course Title: The Politics of Corruption
Duration: 15 sessions (August 10 – November 26, 2026)
Schedule: Monday lecture, Thursday discussion
Location: TBA
Instructor
Bogdan Popescu
E-Mail: bgpopescu@tec.mx
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Description
Corruption is widely condemned, yet it remains deeply rooted in governments, businesses, and international institutions. This course examines why corruption persists, how it affects societies, and what can be done to reduce it.
The course has three parts. Part I introduces the main concepts and methods used to define, measure, and explain corruption. Part II examines how corruption developed historically in a small number of countries and how institutions and political choices shaped different outcomes. Part III explores corruption in today’s globalized world, including its links to foreign aid, natural resources, organized crime, and new technologies.
The course opens with the definitional problem, then teaches students how to read an empirical article critically, because almost everything that follows is an argument built on evidence. No economics, statistics, or programming background is required.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Read a study critically — state what an article asks you to believe, find the assumption its authors never wrote down, name what else could have produced the result, and give a calibrated verdict.
- Define and distinguish the main forms of corruption — bribery, fraud, embezzlement, influence trafficking, clientelism, patronage, and state capture — and explain why some corruption is perfectly legal.
- Explain why corruption persists, using both the incentive diagnosis (monopoly, discretion, accountability) and the collective-action logic that explains why everyone can condemn corruption and still take part in it.
- Weigh the evidence on what corruption costs, and say why a cross-country correlation cannot price it.
- Compare how corruption developed and sometimes receded across historical and institutional settings, from the Progressive-Era United States to Hong Kong.
- Analyze the links between corruption and foreign aid, natural resources, organized crime, and new technologies — including where open data and AI tools help and where they fail.
Texts and Resources
No textbook required. See the readings and links under the relevant sessions.
Assessment
The final grade has three components:
- Contributions to class — 33%
- Midterm exam — 33%
- Final exam — 33%
Contributions to Class
The contributions to class are the average of:
- presentation
- physical presence
- class participation
- questions submitted every week
- quality of questions
The mid-term and final exams are closed-book. They will test the improvement of students’ knowledge of the theories and facts developed in the course, and independent critical thinking. Both the mid-term and final exams represent 33% of the grade.
A major exam (midterm or final) cannot be made up without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed.
Exam dates
The midterm is on Thursday, September 24 and covers Sessions 1–5 and 8. The final exam is on Thursday, November 26 and covers the whole course.
Reading
Each session lists its readings as Required or Recommended. Required readings are done before the session that assigns them; recommended ones provide additional theoretical, historical, or empirical depth. Both may be assigned for student presentations. Reading completion is tested in the midterm and the final.
Weekly questions
Submit two questions on the session’s readings before 11pm on Wednesday, ahead of the Thursday discussion. Each question should be 50–100 words. Begin by referencing a specific part of the text or its overarching claim, then ask a critical question that opens discussion rather than testing recall. Questions are graded on quality, not merely on submission.
Presentations
Each student delivers one 10-minute presentation on a reading assigned in advance, drawn from the Required or Recommended readings of Sessions 3–13. Presentations run on the Thursday discussion of each teaching session, from August 20 onward: two or three students each week, always on that session’s own readings. Your reading and date are listed beside that reading on its session page.
Presentations should include a clear introduction, main points, and conclusion. Use visual aids effectively, ensuring text is legible and visuals are relevant. Practice beforehand to stay within the time limit and maintain a confident, professional tone. Be prepared to answer 2–3 questions from peers or the instructor during and after the presentation. Cite your sources, and do not read verbatim from slides or notes.
At ten minutes you cannot summarize everything the reading says, and you are not expected to. Choose the claim that matters and defend a verdict on it.
In addition to summarizing the key arguments or findings, your presentation must include critical analysis of the material. Highlight what the author does not address, the limitations of the research, or potential problems in the analysis or methodology. Think about how the research could be improved, expanded, or connected to broader themes discussed in class.
The fastest route to that analysis is the six moves from Session 2: state the claim, reconstruct the argument and find the premise nobody wrote down, ask what was measured and at what level, ask what the comparison was and on what assumption, name the rival explanations, and close with a three-tier verdict — well supported, plausible but not established, or not established by these data. A presentation that ends on a verdict rather than a summary is doing the work this course asks for.
Rubric for Presentations
| Criteria | Weak | Points | Satisfactory | Points | Strong | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical Analysis and Verdict | Summarizes without analysis. No verdict, or a verdict unsupported by what was presented. | 12 | Offers some analysis and states a verdict, but the reasoning behind it is thin. | 22 | Names the unstated premise, weighs rival explanations, and closes on a verdict the evidence presented actually supports. | 30 |
| Content Knowledge | Limited or inaccurate grasp of the material. | 8 | Adequate grasp; identifies the main claim correctly. | 15 | Accurate and selective — identifies the claim that matters and what the evidence behind it is. | 20 |
| Selection and Focus | Attempts to cover everything and finishes none of it, or runs badly over or under time. | 6 | Covers a reasonable amount within the time, but the choice of what to include seems arbitrary. | 11 | Chooses one defensible line of argument and develops it fully within the time. | 15 |
| Organization | Lacks structure; ideas are disjointed. | 6 | Somewhat organized, but transitions are weak. | 11 | Clear introduction, main points, and conclusion, easy to follow throughout. | 15 |
| Clarity of Expression | Unclear language or unexplained jargon. | 4 | Generally clear, though some passages are hard to follow. | 7 | Communicates precisely and accessibly. | 10 |
| Engagement and Response | Reads verbatim; cannot answer questions. | 4 | Some engagement; answers questions adequately. | 7 | Speaks to the room, and handles 2–3 questions with substance. | 10 |
| Total Points | 40 | 73 | 100 |
The presentation is graded on this rubric.
Course Content
Fifteen sessions: eleven teaching sessions, a review before each exam, and the two exams. Session 8 is taught before the midterm, so four weeks of content precede it. Each session runs over two meetings — a Monday lecture and a Thursday discussion built around student presentations. Sessions 1 and 2 were the exception, both taught in the opening week. Semana Tec (Sep 14–18 and Oct 26–30) interrupts the course twice.
| Session | Date | Topic | Presentations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mon, Aug 10 | 1 · Welcome, and What Is Corruption? | |
| 2 | Thu, Aug 13 | 2 · Reading a Study Critically | |
| 3 | Mon, Aug 17 | 3 · Incentives, Rents, and the Principal–Agent Problem | |
| Thu, Aug 20 | Discussion — Session 3 readings | Danna · Patricio | |
| 4 | Mon, Aug 24 | 4 · Corruption as an Equilibrium: Norms and Collective Action | |
| Thu, Aug 27 | Discussion — Session 4 readings | Nicole · Santiago · Chris | |
| 5 | Mon, Aug 31 | 5 · The Costs of Corruption | |
| Thu, Sep 3 | Discussion — Session 5 readings | ||
| 8 | Mon, Sep 7 | 8 · The United States: Patronage, Reform, and the Progressive Era | |
| Thu, Sep 10 | Discussion — Session 8 readings | Daniel · Amy · Mía | |
| Sep 14–18 | Semana Tec — no class | ||
| 6 | Mon, Sep 21 | 6 · Midterm Review | |
| Thu, Sep 24 | Midterm Exam (Sessions 1–5 and 8) | ||
| 7 | Mon, Sep 28 | 7 · Exam Debrief | |
| Thu, Oct 1 | Discussion — where the arguments go next | ||
| 9 | Mon, Oct 5 | 9 · Clientelism and Vote Buying | |
| Thu, Oct 8 | Discussion — Session 9 readings | Diego · Gerardo · Mariana | |
| 10 | Mon, Oct 12 | 10 · China and Hong Kong: Corruption, Growth, and Clean Government | |
| Thu, Oct 15 | Discussion — Session 10 readings | Santiago · Armando · Iván | |
| 11 | Mon, Oct 19 | 11 · Windfalls: Foreign Aid, Natural Resources, and Elite Capture | |
| Thu, Oct 22 | Discussion — Session 11 readings | Alejandra · José · Daniela | |
| Oct 26–30 | Semana Tec — no class | ||
| 12 | Mon, Nov 2 | 12 · Organized Crime, Violence, and State Capture | |
| Thu, Nov 5 | Discussion — Session 12 readings | Nicolás · Leonardo · Luis | |
| 13 | Mon, Nov 9 | 13 · Technology Against Corruption: Open Data and AI | |
| Thu, Nov 12 | Discussion — Session 13 readings | María · Juan · Carlos | |
| 14 | Mon, Nov 16 | 14 · Final Review: How Countries Escape, and Synthesis | |
| Thu, Nov 19 | Discussion — Session 14 readings | Diego · Alejandro · Sofía | |
| 15 | Mon, Nov 23 | 15 · Final Exam Review | |
| Thu, Nov 26 | Final Exam (whole course) |
Attendance
Students are required to attend classes following the university’s policies. Students with more than three unexcused absences are assumed to have withdrawn from the course. Students with a justified reason for missing class must send an email to the corresponding instructor before the session.
Academic Integrity
The use of artificial intelligence is permitted within the university’s ethical guidelines and applicable law, under one condition: every submission includes an appendix stating which AI tools were used, for what purpose (brainstorming, grammar, translation, finding sources, data analysis), and with which prompts. Disclosed use within these bounds is legitimate — learning to use AI responsibly is one of the competencies of this course. Undisclosed AI use is academic dishonesty. The analysis itself — the choice of case, the diagnosis, the argument — must be your own. It is the responsibility of students and instructors, from their respective roles, to know and apply the institutional guidelines.
Any act of academic dishonesty will result in a failing grade on the work in question. Cases of academic dishonesty will be reported to the academic administration.
Students with Special Needs
The university does not discriminate based on disability. Students with approved accommodations must inform their instructors at the beginning of the term. Please see the institutional website for the complete policy.