Corruption - A discursive analysis of a political scandal.

Abstract: With the use of a discursive analysis political documents of the Italian socialist leader, Bettino Craxi, will come to the attention of this study. The theoretical framework and structure of the work, is based on the conviction that social processes, such as social behavior and language should be understood within their context. An objective reality is not denied but remains dependant on its surroundings and interpretation. The author thus affirms the value of analyzing corruption within its contextual discourse. Italy is shown to have suffered severely from the existence of political crime, violence and heavy corruption leading up to the scandalous revelations of the Mani Pulite campaign in the 1990?s. The following question was raised: How can the discourse of corruption be characterized, before and during the process of Mani Pulite, from the perspective of the socialist leader at that time, Bettino Craxi? Two points are fundamental to the contemplation of this question. Firstly, articulations which associate positive developments to corruption, and secondly constructions of identities which permit and fix a specific meaning to corruption.