Abstract
The subject of corruption in British public life has been neglected as an area of sociological research. The object of this paper is to begin to develop a theorisation of corruption by examining some basic conceptual and methodological issues. It will be argued that Britain is not necessarily experiencing a rise in corruption, but a change in its actual nature. This is characterised in terms of a move from `primary' to `secondary' corruption. By continuing to employ a primary conceptualisation, there is a danger of developing a radically misinformed, even corrupt, perspective on the recent `rise' in corruption. An attempt is therefore made in this analysis to examine some structural and cultural features of this new wave of corruption and argue that secondary corruption is endemic with the `marketisation' of public services and the introduction of the New Public Management.
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