Political corruption is usually a charge aimed at developing countries. But attention here was focused issues such as the French political scandals and the way money buys the US Congress. The participants were not "outsiders" from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), but represent the world of diplomacy, economics, education, science and the media.

 Dominique Borde, a board member of Doctors Without Borders, says corruption is one of the tools of the market system. 

"In France for many years, it was possible to corrupt foreign political leaders and private investors as long as you went to the Treasury, disclosed you were sending commissions, it was tax deductible. Two years ago that practice was repealed."

 But, he asked, we have to ask all know there is a level of corruption we don't consider corruption. The lobbying system in the US raises a lot of issues--when you invite people to play golf and do favors with no direct link then," but you use them for something later.

 He noted that the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of the early 70s was strongly enforced for the first five years, with requirements that subsidiaries signed affidavits saying they hadn't done anything illegal. But after that, the checks stopped. 

Or, he said, "when I see that Americans never said anything about Mr. Reagan having his house built by generous contributors. Is that corruption? Or when you see Mr. Clinton's pardons."

 But one could hear subtlely the argument for payoffs: "What do you do if you have no choice but to go through some government agencies? What do you do if you lose your market? What is the responsibility of the chairman of a company if he loses a market. Everything would be fine if everyone played by the rules. Are you justified now to defend your enterprise, your employees, your market?"

 It's not just a matter of blatant illegality, said Tony Hinton, Australian ambassador to France. He said, "I'm broadening the definition of corruption to legal activities. Economists talk about rent seekers, getting special deals through the tax system or government expenditure. It's not criminal. The way to cover that is through transparency about the use of those funds, about who gets the benefits so the electorate understands the government is using your taxpayer funds to pay certain sectoral interests." 

Transparency in political financial or no private financing at all? Amy Kauffman of the Hudson Institute in the US, who ran a campaign for finance reform, proposed that the answer is disclosure of contributions immediately on the Internet. "The problem, not just in the US, is the need to put clean accountable money into the system. The best things is a system of disclosure." She suggested a worldwide searchable data base "so that citizens and the media could connect the dots." 

Robert Keefe, an American who does public policy consulting and is former executive director of the Democratic Party of the US, agreed that "reporting is the most important thing we can do." He said the system has "gotten out of hand," especially with the creation of phony front groups to support legislation or public policy. "The watershed was in 1993 when Mrs. Clinton got involved in the health care issue. There was an eruption of health care, pharmaceutical, health care suppliers in America that threw money at the problem to a degree never heard of. It worked." They derailed the Clinton health care reform. 

"Transparency is impossible," asserted Joseph Smallhoover, an American lawyer in Paris who is a member of the Democratic National Committee. "There will be a backdoor someplace else."

 A participant interjected, "Morally, you have to take a position, and if you've got the livelihoods of a certain number of workers likely to be seriously affected by the decision you take, it tends to upset your judgment."

 But another argued, "I ran a commodities trading company and dealt a great deal in the Third World. I don't understand how we can debate that any corruption can be morally justifiable." The answer is public funding of campaigns, suggested John Willis, director of Rule Conseil, management consultants. "An invitation to a conspiracy to corrupt is worse for the person receiving it, particularly if he has responsibility for jobs and the livelihood of the workers. I'd be delighted to have public funding of campaigns because this will take away this initiative." 

Kauffman worried that would simply move influence to groups advocating issues. "The money will be into one of those loopholes, but without accountability." 

A hope for the future could be the Internet. Laurent de Bernede, director of the web site for Le Figaro, declared, "Ideas will flow better and go father through the Internet. The power of money in a political campaign will lessen."

It appeared that a corrosive problem that politics can't solve might be solved by technology.