This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, March 4, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Jay Kost argues in his new book,

A Republic No More, that the United States

has turned into a special interest democracy.

Following a discussion of the book held at the Cato Institute,

I spoke with Kost about his detailed history of American political corruption.

My introduction to the subject of your book seems like it's something you quote right up front which is Plunkett of Tammany Hall and

that book goes into a whole lot of different elements and the distinction that you point out that this book draws is this idea

between honest corruption and dishonest corruption.

So what is in Plunkett's mind honest corruption and and how does that inform

what you've written? Well Plunkett has first of, George Washington Plunkett was a very interesting character,

who was a boss at Tammany Hall, and he defined honest graft as I seen my opportunities and I took

them. And he gives the example of he knows where a transportation project

is going to be built and nobody there wants the land right now.

So he goes and purchases the land and he says,

what's the harm in that? And it's meant as a defense of the

Tammany system and on the merits it's it's completely unpersuasive and I don't I

don't quote George Washington Plunkin to echo him, but to sort of suggest that there's, that corruption

is sort of a nebulous concept that typically when you think of corruption you think of

purpwalks, you think of extortion, you think of corruption you think of perpwalks you think of extortion you think of bribery or kickbacks but there is

to borrow phrase an honest form of corruption which is putting private interests ahead of the public good.

...