Corruption is at the center of political debate within Latin America today. As some countries still continue to display their incapability to recognize the growing issues of violence, crime, and growing inequality within their countries, many of these "elected" political officials still remain in office. In a recent study by Kurt Weyland, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin and author of Politics of Corruptions in Latin America, he states that democracies in Latin America are threatened by an exponential growth in corruption that has long since occurred as the dictators of the past have left the scene. As he goes on to argue, because corruption has increased a great deal under democracy in Latin America it points to several factors that are responsible for such an increase...
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First is the dispersion of power in the hands of the many as opposed to those of the few, thus widened the opportunity for bribery. In effect, there are many more ‘‘players’’ today in that because of which each potential vote must be "earned."
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Second, numerous economic reforms have led to many areas of the economy being left susceptible to bribery, especially those involving transnational corporations and big business.
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Finally Dr. Weyland argues that because of the increasing numbers of political leaders, who win elections based on personal appeals alone, are beginning to aspire many politicians to engage in corrupt practices to out show and grow their own campaign.
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Why Corruption?!
The chart above displays the current corruption perceptions index for both North and South America in 2016.
So Why Latin America...
The main purpose of this website is to acknowledge the growing issue of why corruption has spread throughout most of all of Latin America, yet to answer such a question we must go back and ask ourselves why corruption (the misuse of public office for private gain) is perceived to be found more wide spread in some countries as compared to others? According to Daniel Treisman, a professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, this is quite a difficult question to answer, especially when there is very little actually known about what causes corruption to be higher in someplace as compered to others. The overall consensus in why some countries do decide to misuse public office is because...
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Private Gain
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Risk vs. Reward
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Legal Systems Enforcement of Laws (Expectations vs. Practice)
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We need to make more rules of distinctions: in where does corruption
take place (in which “arena” of politics)? And, is the transaction voluntary
or coerced? This is why most of the work on corruption, especially that of
international financial institutions and donor organizations, focuses
on the administrative regulatory "judicial" arena.
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“N,N” pair: nothing offered and nothing requested.
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“Y,Y” combination: the client offers and the agent request. “negotiate” (Worst)
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“N, Y ” pair suggests coercion; the agent requests the bribe, Where the agent sets the terms and the client must pay, or else.
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“Y,N” pair suggests a client corrupting the public agent
The Pairing
Fernanda Odilla, a current producer for "BBC Brazil" and a current student a King's College London as she continues to pursue her Ph.D, present an outstanding article on the rule of law within Brazil Today. "Building Accountability Under Intense Pressure: Lessons From Brazil's Anti-Corruption Legislation attempts to examine the accountability, internal control, public management and quality of democracy in Brazil today.
Her main goal was to identify and properly evaluate who the punished Federal bureaucrats are as well as discuss and identify how efficient anticorruption mechanisms are in punishing public servants, as well as in consolidating democracy within Brazil. As she states in August (2013), "Although it took fifteen years for Brazil to design, enact and put its anti-bribery law (Clean Company Act) into effect, this was the result of numerous forces working together, of which lead to; strong campaigning from international anti-corruption organizations and national civil society on the one hand, but also the influence of highly publicized corruption scandals on the other." Governments must be held accountable for their actions. In doing so there needs to be more legislation put in place to prevent corruption from spreading within the government, but this can be difficult when the ties of corruption run deeper then just one simple politician Organize crime has been rampant, and this can in part be the fault of political instability seen throughout most of Latin America but especially in the case of brazil. With the current president holding the right connections, he has not only stabilized his position in office, but has no power to challenge his authority, thus laws must be further enacted to eliminate "power" from being used as a tool to get out of "judicial justice."
It's amazing how these government are getting away with multiple corruption charges as their country continues to deal with serve poverty, inequality and political corruption, while big business remains unharmed. According to John Bailey, a professor at Georgetown University, "Criminal groups adjust their behavior as a function of their own goals and resources in relation to inter-group cooperation and conflict, dynamic markets, and public policies; governments adjust their behavior according to shifting perceptions of the benefits offered, threats posed, and strategies adopted by criminal groups."
Building Accountability
Administrative corruption:
This involves abuse of office in the quotidian operations of government in extracting resources, distributing goods and services and regulating behavior. It can be quite significant. Most services the state provides have some rationale, but some might be considered m o re important than others. In term s of basic state functions and societal survival, one would assign priority to taxation and budget administration, national defense and public security, and to the regulatory agencies that overs see public health and safety.
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Political corruption in program administration:
Apart from issues of theft and bribery, governments and political parties frequently use public program s as resources to generate support.
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Grand corruption:
In general usage this refers to high-level officials pocketing money from kickbacks, theft, embezzlement, insider deal s, and the like. Privatizations of public enterprises provide some of the most spectacular cases of grand corruption in the region. They often tend to be massive and convoluted, highly visible and yet opaque.
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General Terms
