Etica e corruzione: fisiologia e patologia nelle amministrazioni pubbliche

[Machine translation] A well-known fact is that in Italy, maladministration and corruption are the main causes of the inefficiency of services intended for local, regional and national communities, of the failure of public finances and of the disaffection of citizens with institutions. These factors are also a source of very high economic costs that people and economic activities must face with tax increases that, most of the time, do not correspond to public services adequate to demand. Starting from these premises, the chapter addresses the topic of ethics in public administration through the analysis of the literature and the models offered by the theory with some references to empirical evidence. It also develops the issue of corruption in public institutions and its worldwide diffusion, highlighting some possible solutions that can be adopted to combat this phenomenon. The reason for the presence of corruption, with different degrees of intensity, in all international public administrations means that the topic is of significant importance in the management studies of public systems and companies; the work, therefore, offers a contribution to the knowledge of the phenomenon and the way in which it can be interpreted in the field of economic-business studies.