ABSTRACT
Contemporary political corruption and its criminal accretions are global in scope, and to understand them it is necessary to understand also something of the changing politics of international, transnational and supranational activity (see Beare 2000b). The delicate multiculturalism which has characterized much western intellectual thought since the 1960s is relevant to the 'real world' transactions of politicians, bureaucrats, economists, entrepreneurs, banking and commercial corporations and aid donors and recipients mainly to the extent that an awareness of it is good for business. The world of action's counterpoint to the intellectual push towards cultural, social and political pluralism is a pull towards international standardization and harmonization, and a sometimes selective preference for international free trade over cultural constraint or nation state mercantilism.
