Akkam’s RazorI don't do personal that often, which is why I've never become a D-tier internet celebrity.

The movie the Untouchables [IMDB] has two hallmark scenes speaking to the culture of corruption in Chicago (and Illinois) – Sean Connery’s character explaining to Elliot Ness’ ‘the Chicago Way’, and DeNiro’s Al Capone brutally demonstrating his enthusiasm for baseball to his underbosses.  What is it about  Chicago that cultivates corruption?  Is it something to do with urban politics?  Transactions of capital?  Systems theory and networks?  Sociology, pyschology, and demography?  A search on Google for “Why is Illinois so corrupt?” points the way, but delivers no definitive answers.  One thing that’s certain – Illinois’ contemporary history is riddled with corruption – 79 convicted elected officials since 1972!  Both Politico and Slate attempt to explain, and a search at Google Scholar has some academic research explaining the same.

Tags: Chicago, Corruption, Government, Illinois

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Government, Politicking. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.