Perceptions of Political Corruption in Latin American Democracies

Political corruption poses a serious threat to the stability of developing democracies by eroding the links between citizens and governments. Using data on national levels of corruption (Transparency International 1997 CPI index) and individual opinion (1995-97 World Values Survey), this study finds...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Latin American politics and society 2005-10, Vol.47 (3), p.91-111
Main Authors: Canache, Damarys, Allison, Michael E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Consumer Price Index
Corruption
Corruption in government
Data corruption
Democracy
Developing Countries
Government corruption
Government officials
Incumbents
Judicial corruption
Latin America
Latin American politics
Official misconduct
Perception
Perceptions
Political Attitudes
Political corruption
Political leadership
Political stability
Political systems
Presidents
Public Opinion
Scandals
Social Perception
State-society relations
Threat
Transparency
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Political corruption poses a serious threat to the stability of developing democracies by eroding the links between citizens and governments. Using data on national levels of corruption (Transparency International 1997 CPI index) and individual opinion (1995-97 World Values Survey), this study finds that Latin Americans are quite aware of the seriousness of corruption in their countries. The ensuing question is whether citizens can connect their views about corruption to appraisals of their authorities and institutions and of democracy more generally. Collectively, the findings suggest that they can, and that the necessary ingredients for accountability are present in Latin America. The possible dark side of mass opinion on corruption is that pervasive misconduct may poison public sentiment toward democratic politics. On this score, the analysis found that this attitude affected only support for specific administrations and institutions.
ISSN:1531-426X
1548-2456
DOI:10.1111/j.1548-2456.2005.tb00320.x