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49th Carlos Kelly McClatchy Symposium

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Corruption: Who Plays? Who Pays?

If this is corruption …

“Former Representative William J. Jefferson was convicted Wednesday afternoon of using his office to try to enrich himself and relatives through a web of bribes and payoffs involving business ventures in Africa.”- New York Times

Is this corruption?

“Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including [Senator Elizabeth] Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party’s tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week … the idea of withholding donations … has been raised in one-on-one conversations between representatives of some of them”- Reuters

Debates about campaign finance laws increasingly center on the question of how to define corruption and influence in politics. The 49th Annual Carlos Kelly McClatchy Symposium focuses on the definition and measurement of corruption in politics as seen through the lens of three fields: legal scholarship, journalism, and political science.

Panelists include Zephyr Teachout, Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University and author of Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United; Derek Willis, Correspondent for the The New York Times; and Justin Grimmer, Professor of Political Science at Stanford. The panel is moderated by James Hamilton, Hearst Professor of Communication at Stanford.