Corruption Under Left Turn Governments in Latin America

Manuel Balán

Project Description

This project studies the issue of corruption in Latin America, in the context of the Left turn that swept the region for the last fifteen years. Starting in 1998 with the election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Latin America saw the election and re-election of center-left and left political parties and leaders in most of South America—except for Peru and Colombia—and in several countries in Central America. Nearly all these countries had to deal with issues of corruption or alleged corruption of government officials. However, as of date no study has attempted to assess what has changed and what has remained the same in terms of corruption during this unprecedented left turn in the region. This study addresses this question, comparing Left turn and non-Left turn governments both within cases through time as well as across cases.

The research project looks at three main areas of study. First, the analysis focuses on media coverage of corruption to determine whether there was more negative coverage of corruption by mainstream media under Left turn governments. Second, the study looks at how governments respond to corruption to establish whether there are systematic differences in how Left turn governments frame their discourse on corruption and how they respond to corruption in terms of anti-corruption policies. Finally, this project analyzes public opinion data to assess the variation of perceptions of corruption under Left turn and non-Left turn governments.

Funding: SSHRC, Insight Development Grant