Customer Reviews

Elite Deviance (7th Edition)

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Other reviewers have complained that the book lacks theoretical coherence and substance, and while I cannot disagree with this criticism altogether, it is important to point out that the book is first and foremost, a college level textbook. Thus, although it is not theoretically tidy, I am inclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt. In my view, it must be seen as much a didactic tool as an independent attempt to advance a fresh theory of Elite Deviance.

Even without positing a fully formed theory, this book is undoubtedly filling a gap that sorely needs filling. The only other books that come close to doing so is Peter Dale Scott's "Deep Politics and the JFK assassination," and much of the writings linking the drug trade to the CIA, and through the CIA to high level U.S. politicians. And here I have in mind such works as Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance;" Terry Reed's "Compromise," and Alfred McCoy's, "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia," among many others.

The next conceptual level up from this genre and Simon's book is quite a large leap. Arguably one would have to ascend to something on the order of Jürgen Habermas' et. al., theories of corruption based on a framework of communicative action. In addition to being quite a leap from undergraduate political science and sociology, it would also require a change in focus to criminal intent and the sociology and psychology of crime - not exactly the center of gravity of elite deviance.

The beauty of the present volume is that it does catalogue rather carefully the many instances of elite corruption that remain just below the waterline of American society. This collation is turned into a taxonomy of patterns and robust chunks that hint strongly towards a complete theory of elite deviance. For me that is enough.

In the same vein as Scott's Deep Politics, Simon's treatment here gravitated towards an all but pregnant "pre-theory" of elite deviance based on the overwhelming coherence of the various strains of empirical evidence that this book so carefully collates into meaningful patterns. Constructing a suitable theory from the welter of data pointing to elite deviance and corruption is an exercise that any good college professor would leave as an exercise for his industrious students.

I believe Professor Simon has done just that: He has left this book as a launching pad for industrious students to peek over the horizon to see all the many theoretical possibilities. It is a work in progress and one of the finest of this genre. A final theory of elite deviance in the American political system would make a fine dissertation topic for one of Simon's students.

Five Stars