THE POLITICS OF CORRUPTION & THE CORRUPTION OF POLITICS
In his popular, military-backed autogolpe last year, Peruvian President Fujimori dissolved Congress and the judiciary, charging that these institutions were deeply corrupt. Presidents Collor de...
...What has been the upshot of the new pan-American concern with corruption...
...The second part of the title, "the corruption of politics," refers to the flip side of the process...
...And why all over...
...It may also be that what we are witnessing is not only a growing awareness and concern about corruption, but a growing incidence of corrupt behavior as well...
...As long as the promise of riches seems credibly open to many, why complain...
...This alchemy, as Kornbluh and Byrne tell us, is necessary to create the conditions for meaningful social change...
...Concrete results have so far been in short supply...
...It may have become more difficult to get ahead by licit means just as self-enrichment was becoming the official creed...
...This June, Guatemalan President Serrano attempted his own self-coup, using corruption as an excuse to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court...
...Of course, as Dos Santos points out, when private interests also control the state, the distinction between public and private may be moot...
...VOL XXVII, No 3 Nov/DEC 1993 11REPORT ON CORRUPTION Not only did corruption pale as an issue next to the brutal abuses of military power, but even if citizens were inclined to complain, there was little safe political space in which to act...
...In their analysis of the Iran-Contra scandal, they speak of political corruption as the violation of the delicate system of checks and balances that underlies democracy...
...Peter Andreas tries to strip the word of its connotations of personal morality and consider it purely in its functional sense...
...Meanwhile, rumors of corruption continue to swirl around Argentine President Menem's inner circle...
...Has corruption increased or assumed a new character in the right-of-center democracies in Latin America, or are people just becoming fed up...
...So why has corruption become such a "hot" issue now...
...The gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing alarmingly wide, and for an increasing number of citizens of an increasing number of countries-North as well as South-the struggle for life's basic necessities is growing desperate...
...For some, looking the other way may be less a corrupt choice than a perceived necessity...
...The flagrant abuse of the public trust in the pursuit of illicit goals or private gain degrades the political process and betrays democracy...
...The notion of corruption is inextricably bound up with norms and standards of behavior, which vary over time and place...
...Despite painstaking investigations and reams of evidence unearthed against unscrupulous politicians, few people have been imprisoned for corruption and few legal reforms have been enacted...
...Over the past three decades, much of Latin America was under the iron rule of military dictatorships...
...While lobbying and campaign contributions are frequently considered acceptable forms of influence, most observers feel that kickbacks and bribery are not...
...After all, when greed is enshrined as ideology, the unfettered pursuit of self-interest becomes the socially sanctioned goal for all of us...
...In the United States, the House banking and postoffice scandals and the savings-and-loan debacle followed on the heels of Iran-Contra...
...Social amnesia becomes a logical outcome of a system in which we are encouraged not to know where the food on our table comes from...
...It produces the kind of official corruption Peter Andreas chronicles in the drug trade...
...But after a decade and a half of hard times, people's tolerance has worn thin...
...Peter Kornbluh and Malcolm Byrne use the word "corruption" in its broadest sense...
...Galeano takes this concept furthest when he talks about the corruption of memory itself...
...But is there an alchemy brewing between that outrage and a new political will...
...As Dos Santos argues, the struggle for social justice and greater equality may have rightly taken precedence over the struggle against what many consider to be petty dishonesty...
...And-perhaps most importantly-the systems that have encouraged corruption remain firmly in place...
...Have certain systems or social structures more readily lent themselves to being corrupted...
...The first part of our report title, "the politics of corruption," is meant to suggest a focus both on the political structures that determine the form and degree of corruption, and also on the way in which the issue of corruption can be used as a ploy in the game of power politics...
...People may be less hesitant to voice their outrage and demand accountability from their elected leaders...
...But where is the fine line that divides what is corrupt from what is not...
...And, from the Andes up through Mexico, drug corruption continues to play a major role in the public debate...
...In the drug trade, he says, corruption is simply the cost of doing business in an illicit industry without recourse to lobbyists and lawyers...
...Some indeed have gotten very very rich, but that wealth has been slow to trickle down...
...The articles in this report reflect the idiosyncratic use of the word...
...And has the well-being of society been served by the course that events have taken...
...Indeed radicals-those who choose to examine the root of social problems-are chastised now more than ever to leave the system unexamined, since there is clearly "nothing to replace it with...
...After Congressional inquiries, impeachments, and attempted crackdowns on "corrupt" political institutions and actors, has the political system been reinvented or transformed...
...Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines it as "inducement [as of a public official] by means of improper considerations [as bribery] to commit a violation of duty...
...Why not choose to forget the uncomfortable facts of modern life...
...De Le6n Carpio, Serrano's successor, has also tried-so far unsuccessfully-to dissolve Congress for the same purported reasons...
...The good life was said to be around the corner for all those who worked hard...
...Yet how does one differentiate between proper and improper considerations...
...orruption is a slippery term...
...And violation of the public trust is hardly limited to the public sector...
...Something similar is probably responsible for the lack of a public outcry against the corruption of the Reagan-Bush years in the United States...
...The growing income gap may have made corruption more of a necessity than ever...
...In addition, when times are good, as in Venezuela during the oil boom, a considerably greater tolerance for corruption seems to exist...
...What is and is not corrupt resides, to some degree, in the eye of the beholder...
...At the same time, the hard sell of the neoliberal restructuring package may have raised unrealistic expectations of quick economic success...
...When private interests control the commanding heights of social and economic power, private malfeasance-false advertising, insider trading, etc.-can be just as great a violation of the public trust as any politician on the take...
...A certain amount of corruption may well be built into the impersonal, utilitarian relationships of contemporary life...
...In fact, many observers have found a marked tolerance for corruption as long as its rewards are perceived to be somewhat open to all...
...Theotonio Dos Santos narrowly defines corruption as "irregular transfers and commissions...
...Has corruption taken different shapes in each country, or is the same problem with the same root causes playing itself out in different contexts...
...There are many reasons why corruption didn't emerge as an important issue before now...
...And in a nondictatorial framework, other issues, for better or worse, have simply been considered more compelling...
...Presidents Collor de Mello in Brazil and P6rez in Venezuela were impeached for using their office for personal gain, in 1992 and 1993 respectively...
...Politics involves an intricate set of inducements, threats and negotiations between office-holders and their various constituencies over a wide array of public policies and the distribution of scarce government resources...
...Moreover, some political scientists see a little corruption as a way to open up avenues of mobility in a capitalist economy, and assuage potential political dissent...
...That is, have governmental attempts to clean house yielded significant reform...
...In this context, Venezuelans were not inclined to boot P6rez out of office during his first term when the expressed feeling among many was "sure he steals, but he lets you steal too...
...Empty promises have bred resentment, and resentment has fueled the anti-corruption movement...
...This is a lethal combination...
...The goal of corruption may be power, but the mediation is always money...
Vol. 27 • November 1993 • No. 3
