Introduction

Chapter 1 presents a brief introduction to the purpose of the monograph and lays out the road-map for the rest of the book. The theme so developed is the following: development economics research on corruption has surged in recent years, in part because there is a growing consensus that the efficacy of foreign aid hinges on the honest management of funds. The overall theme of the literature has been to demonstrate the corrosive effect corruption has on enterprise and the political process. We present here a case study of successful institutional change in the 1950s Los Angeles Police Department in which Police Chief William H. Parker produced a record of effective reforms. Finally, we introduce that we intend to apply this history to modern day development economics.