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Corruption and Politics in Latin America: National and Regional Dynamics . Edited by Stephen D. Morris and Charles H. Blake . Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner , 2010. 287p. $68.50 cloth, $27.50 paper.
Corruption and Democracy in Brazil: The Struggle for Accountability . Edited by Timothy J. Power and Matthew M. Taylor . Notre Dame, IN : University of Notre Dame Press . 2011. 328p. $38.00.
Book Reviews: Comparative Politics
Understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of corruption in Latin America persists as a challenge fraught with difficulties, including fundamental conceptual and measurement problems. Corruption and Politics in Latin America and Corruption and Democracy in Brazil help resolve these and other methodological and theoretical issues in the study of corruption. A key theme that emerges from a combined reading of these volumes is the need for greater attention to 1) how structural and cultural factors condition the effect of anticorruption institutions, and 2) how anticorruption institutions interact with each other. I return to these points later.
In the introduction to Corruption and Politics in Latin America, Stephen Morris and Charles Blake offer an excellent survey of the major causes and consequences of corruption, and they highlight several challenges facing students of corruption: 1) the persistence of corruption despite pervasive anticorruption sentiment and policies; 2) the need for deeper attention to historical sequences and conditions (e.g., path dependence); 3) the lack of regional comparative studies; 4) the need for further conceptual work that disaggregates forms and locations of corruption (e.g., institutional, societal); and 5) the measuring of corruption in disaggregated ways and in ways that differentiate between new and old types of corruption (p. 26).
The volume includes chapters on Argentina (Blake and Sarah Lunsford Kohen), Bolivia (Daniel Gingerich), Brazil (Matthew Taylor), Cuba (Sergio Diaz-Briquets and Jorge Perez-Lopez), Mexico (Morris), and Venezuela (Leslie Gates), as well as a chapter that addresses regional anticorruption efforts (Florencia Guerzovich and Roberto de Michele) and a concluding chapter that examines regional determinants of corruption (Blake and Morris). One of the strengths of the volume is the similar structure across chapters, covering a) patterns of corruption, b) impact of corruption, c) influences on corruption, d) anticorruption efforts, and e) prospects for change.
Returning to the...