In spite of the parallels, Australia has a number of distinctive features that set it apart from the United States. Its first white inhabitants were convicts and their military jailers. Although white settlers soon arrived, much of Australia was run as a military dictatorship for its first 50 years, until the middle of the 19^th century. The military had monopoly control of the distribution of goods and of the allocation of the convict labor force to private employers. The commissariat was the major purchaser of grain from settlers. This degree of power over free settlers created many opportunities for corruption. In the mid-19^th century, this system ended, but it left a legacy of dependence on the state and of kickbacks and connections used to bend the rules in one's favor. Thus, according to Perry, the main legacy of the convict period was not so much the population's criminal history as it was the habit of relying on the state to provide benefits and solve problems. Furthermore, in spite of all those wide-open spaces, Australia was, from the start, an overwhelmingly urban society, with all the need for state services and infrastructure that implies and with a tradition of using public office for private gain.

Another distinctive aspect of Australian corruption is its interaction with economic interests. Corruption is especially destructive when business people give up the struggle for productive advantage and simply fight over the distribution of rents. This appears not to have happened on a large scale in Australia. First, Perry describes corruption in the early years of the gold-mining boom in Victoria. However, a regulatory statute was soon passed that created an "equitable, efficient, and public system of mining regulation" (28). The second example involves struggles between "squatters" (that is, sheepherders) and "settlers" (that is, farmers). As in the American West, the farmers wanted clear land titles and the right to keep animals off their land; the squatters wanted broad access. In spite of the "squatter" label, the sheepherders were relatively large and prosperous enterprises. Thus, "big business," in the form of sheepherders, wanted weak property rights in land, compared to small farmers. Here is where democracy made a difference. When these economic interests collided, the farmers had safety in numbers and exerted political power. Their interests coincided with those of corrupt politicians, who could take unoccupied land for themselves in the process of giving the farmers title to their fields. Similarly, the need for infrastructure produced "roads and bridges" politicians who provided services to their constituents, lining their own pockets along the way with kickbacks from contractors. The politicians got rich and made choices that were costly for taxpayers and some businesses, but they did not stop development.

Like the United States, Australia was originally a collection of distinct colonies that joined in a commonwealth at its independence in 1900. However, because the central government is a relatively new creation and because its powers are limited, ongoing problems of corruption appear to be concentrated at the state and local levels and to involve intertwined issues of land-use planning, campaign finance, kickbacks, and cronyism. At present, corruption scandals surface with some regularity, but the problem does not seem to be endemic.

Given the very different history of other former British colonies, the question for Perry is why Australia is relatively clean. Perry does not really answer that question, but he does discuss some specific policies that may provide lessons for other countries seeking ideas. The most well known is the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) in New South Wales, which is Australia's most populous state and one with a history of corruption. The Commission is note-worthy because it is not just a law-enforcement body: it has a broader reform agenda. As Perry notes (99), the work of the ICAC "is not just a matter of well-publicized success in particular cases but of the use of such cases to develop discussion of more basic issues." The ICAC has issued reports on such sensitive issues as local government corruption and land development. Queensland, however, is the only other state that has followed the example of New South Wales, and Perry speculates that this has to do with opposition from both politicians and business interests in other states.

Perry's overall assessment of the current situation in Australia is relatively favorable. He asks in his subtitle if Australia is "A Very Wicked Place?", and his answer is "No." Incentives for payoffs do exist, however, especially at the local level. True, the railroads have been built and the major highways constructed, but municipalities still make zoning decisions with major economic consequences for local firms and carry out construction projects that provide lucrative contracts. The situation seems similar to that in the United States: corruption occurs and is often tied to the search for campaign funds. Yet, in spite of individual cases of inefficiency and unfairness, corruption has not undermined the Australian economy or the polity as a whole. Nevertheless, Perry concludes (129) with a worry that the public has become too tolerant of corruption in recent years and that this could produce a return to past patterns of behavior by politicians and business.