Corruption in the Ancien Régime: Systems-theoretical Considerations on Normative Plurality

Abstract

Corruption in the Ancien Régime. Systems-theoretical Considerations on Normative Plurality

This paper explores how systems theory may help to frame early modern corruption more precisely. With particular attention to the issue of Normenkonkurrenz, it explains disputes over officeholding through the interplay of social structure and semantics. On the model level, we add the social obligations of stratified societies to the normative references used in corruption cases. Then the analysis turns to three conflict scenarios in the seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries: (1) frictions between noble rank and bureaucratic role at the Vienna court; (2) criticism of corruption in the struggles of ruler and estates in Württemberg; (3) the re-evaluation of administrative practices as illegitimate in an English impeachment. As regards basic patterns of argument, the picture emerging from the case studies is rather static for an alleged period of transition. Thus in the light of systems theory, the findings are at odds with teleological narratives in corruption history.