ISSUE BRIEF 07.20.21 Corruption and Anti-Corruption from the Left and Right in the Americas

Stephen D. Morris, Ph.D., Nonresident Scholar, Mexico Center

Corruption has become a central part of the higher levels of corruption than the U.S. language of modern politics. Candidates, (ranked 25th), comparisons based on public voters, aid experts, activists, analysts, and perceptions tend to reveal a much narrower politicians all stress the problem and the gap, with majorities in both countries need to battle it. Tapping into this wellspring considering corruption to be widespread, of popular discontent, the recent electoral particularly within the congress and political campaigns of Enrique Peña Nieto and Andrés parties (see TI’s Global Corruption Barometer, Manuel López Obrador in Mexico in 2012 2013). In a 2013 Gallup poll, for instance, 79% and 2018, respectively, of Jair Bolsonaro of U.S. respondents considered corruption in Brazil in 2018, and of Donald Trump and widespread throughout the government Bernie Sanders in the U.S. in 2016 and 2020, (Gallup 2013)—a finding one would more respectively, prominently featured the twin likely associate with Mexico and a sentiment themes of corruption and anti-corruption. that Trump clearly tapped. In fact, in TI’s But were these politicians really referring 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, 64% in to the same thing? Is corruption a uniquely the U.S. and 62% in Mexico believed to a apolitical issue featuring broad agreement “large extent/to some extent” that [their] on the contours of good governance and the government served the interests of the technical, institutional solutions needed to few rather than the many (one competing secure it, as some seem to suggest? definition of corruption). While experts and Despite consensus on the ills of citizens from the neighboring countries corruption and the need to address it, there are seemingly not referring to the same Despite consensus on remains a fundamental lack of agreement thing, it remains unclear what they mean the ills of corruption on what it is. But this dispute over the by corruption (and, ultimately, whose meaning and nature of corruption extends perspective we should privilege) (Morris and the need to address far beyond academics, who tend to debate 2018). As Susan Rose-Ackerman (2018, 98) it, there remains a such things (ad infinitum and ad nauseam) avers, “the term ‘corruption’ is often used fundamental lack of to encompass voters, politicians, experts, to condemn behavior that violates the agreement on what it is. and others. The seemingly simple task of speaker’s values.” comparing corruption in Mexico and the A recent study by the author explores U.S. helps illustrate the conundrum. While the central question of whether there the various measures of corruption rooted are discernable ideological or left/ in expert opinion, such as Transparency right differences regarding definitions, International’s (TI) highly cited Corruption approaches, views, policies, and their Perception Index (CPI), indicate that Mexico outcomes on corruption and anti-corruption. (ranked 124th least corrupt among 179 In summary form, the study: a) parses the countries in the 2020 CPI) suffers much literature to examine the scholarly debate RICE UNIVERSITY’S BAKER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY // ISSUE BRIEF // 07.20.21

over definition, identifying how competing reforms, and the issue of state intervention formulas align with traditional views that in the economy, López Obrador clearly are associated with the left and right and/ conceives of corruption in a much broader or represent certain underlying interests context that aligns with views from the tied to the left and the right; b) compares left. To begin with, largely because of his the statements on corruption and anti- perceived scope of its impact, López Obrador corruption within Peña Nieto’s and López posits the fight against corruption as a higher Obrador’s National Development Plans priority than did his predecessor. In fact, (PNDs) and in the electoral campaigns López Obrador seems to blame corruption of Bolsonaro, López Obrador, Peña Nieto, for many, if not most, of Mexico’s societal Sanders, and Trump, highlighting left, ills, including the inhibition of economic right, and populist themes; c) analyzes growth (corruption is deemed its “principal the respective anti-corruption policies of inhibitor,” PND, 8) and development (14), Fernández de Kirschner (left) and Mauricio the government’s massive debt (48), and For some, of course, Macri (right) in Argentina, Luiz Inácio Lula the stagnation of the domestic market da Silva (left) and Bolsonaro (right) in Brazil, (48). Corruption is blamed for undermining in today’s setting, Peña Nieto (right) and López Obrador (left) in both the capacity of institutions to operate trumpeting anti- Mexico, Trump (right) in the U.S., and Nicolás legally and the people’s rights and needs (14), corruption has become Maduro (left) in Venezuela to discern any and it is credited for the nation’s poverty, the path to power, potential left/right differences; and d) based inequality, institutional deterioration, on a range of measures of corruption and generalized insecurity, violence, and loss of while corruption integrity, empirically analyzes and compares sovereignty (36, 48). Such a broad, sweeping remains the means to the changes in the levels of corruption impact obviously makes the fight against partake in the spoils. among left and right administrations in the corruption a sine qua non to providing hemisphere over the 2005–2019 period. greater societal well-being, affecting Finally, offering an alternative hypothesis virtually all policy arenas. to a left/right ideological division, the study For López Obrador, corruption goes proposes an in-power versus out-of-power beyond the administrative and illegal forms division to the competing perspectives on of corruption so often highlighted within the corruption and anti-corruption. Instead more orthodox-right approach to corruption of depicting an apolitical approach to a expressed by Peña Nieto to encompass the technical issue, this alternative hypothesis systematic appropriation of state resources stresses the political context of the debates to serve particularistic ends. This includes over the meaning and nature of corruption privatization and neoliberalism. According and how to fight it, as well as the strategic to the PND, corruption represents “the most weaponization of those narratives. extreme form of privatization, meaning the Much of the analysis for the study builds transfer of goods and public resources to on the author’s prior work on corruption private individuals” (14). The PND directly in Mexico, but this time reaches beyond links corruption to neoliberalism on multiple Mexico by offering a more comparative occasions (6, 8, 34, 36). Clearly, given perspective (Morris 1991, 2009). Still, the the fact that privatizations, neoliberal country’s case figures prominently in the policies, the Fobaproa bank bailouts, etc., analysis. An examination of the differences have all been legal policy instruments by between Peña Nieto’s and López Obrador’s former governments, this systemic view of thinking on corruption offers a sample of corruption embraces institutional, structural, the study’s analytical direction. Based on and legal forms of corruption and other anti- their respective National Development Plans neoliberal positions that align with leftist and campaign rhetoric, whereas Peña Nieto thinking. For López Obrador, corruption in tended to view corruption largely in terms Mexico entails a form of state capture by a of its exacerbating effect on the nation’s political and economic elite, what he often security challenges within the justice referred to as “the mafia in power” who, system and emphasize administrative forms acting on behalf of their own interests, of corruption, bureaucratic and technical “imposed [neoliberalism and] took control 2 CORRUPTION AND ANTI-CORRUPTION FROM THE LEFT AND RIGHT IN THE AMERICAS

of the institutions and perpetuated their includes the tendency for those out of power control of them through successive electoral to cast the government’s anti-corruption fraud” (7–8). Though the PND acknowledges efforts as selective, political, and a means to that this pattern of corruption predates the concentrate power and disarm opponents, neoliberal period in Mexico, it nonetheless rather than sincere efforts to fight corruption. suggests that corruption increased The anti-López Obrador faction and many quantitatively and qualitatively during within the anti-corruption community that period: “When the collusion between are in fact outspoken in qualifying their public and economic power, the increasing agreement, on the one hand, with the corruption and the factious utilization of the president on the need to fight corruption institutions created an exclusive oligarchy, a with, on the other, sharp, pointed criticisms small elite [...] ran the country according to of the government’s lackluster support for its own wishes without attending to national the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA), needs and attentive only to the expansion of the president’s attacks on the press and its businesses” (34). autonomous state agencies charged with Such a broad, structural understanding promoting transparency and accountability, of corruption, of course, fundamentally the slow and/or limited prosecutions of shapes the president’s anti-corruption the many high-profile corruption-related policy recommendations. But while many cases, the dismissal of allegations against of the proposed reforms include the rather the president’s allies and his own brother, standard orthodox measures centering on and the president’s tendency to scrap entire greater oversight, transparency, investigation, programs, agencies, and projects (e.g., and punishment, many also seem to fideicomisos and a new airport) as part of an encompass a broader focus on political as anti-corruption strategy. Indeed, the opening opposed to strictly administrative forms of line in a piece by critic Luis Rubio (2019) corruption—conflicts of interest and state- could hardly be more explicit: “The excuse is business alliances that lie behind government the corruption; the reality is total control.” contracts and policy concessions, fiscal But as the study shows, such political policy, tax avoidance, the revolving door that debates over corruption and anti-corruption has been gaining speed in Mexico in recent are hardly unique to Mexico. What Trump years, and uncontrolled spending by and for touted as an effort to dismantle the corrupt public officials. Proposed policies include, for (“rigged”) system in the U.S., for example, example, eliminating preferential policies was assailed by his opponents as a means favoring the private sector, as illustrated in of protecting and privileging the president’s the subsequent reforms to the energy sector interests, promoting right-wing policies, or and the pharmaceutical industry; austerity shielding his and his family’s own corruption. measures to curb excessive state spending In Brazil, the impeachment of then-President by state officials on themselves and eliminate Dilma Rousseff for rather minor violations the current of former officials into the private was part of an orchestrated strategy by sector; the scrapping of tax concessions that opponents to brandish anti-corruption allowed large corporations to pay little to politically to discredit the long-ruling no taxes; and a much stronger emphasis on Workers’ Party (PT). It combined, as Aaron corruption within the private sector. Ansell (2018) shows, “a peculiar blend of But while the sections of the study neoliberalism, Evangelical conservatism, focusing on ideas and campaign rhetoric sexism, racism and authoritarianism,” and tend to highlight left/right differences, was about much more than merely fighting other analyses point to fewer ideologically- corruption. Supported by Brazil’s conservative based differences, particularly in terms media, Rousseff’s ouster (coupled with the of actual state policies—many of which prosecution of Lula), in turn, set the stage for conform to international obligations —and the election of Bolsonaro, who, like Trump, policy outcomes, and to the deep-seated embraced a vision of corruption centering politicization of corruption and anti- on the radical left’s control (capture) of not corruption. On this latter point, in Mexico, this just the state, but of the nation’s universities, 3 RICE UNIVERSITY’S BAKER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY // ISSUE BRIEF // 07.20.21

social media, and entertainment industry. In Rose-Ackerman, Susan. 2018. “Corruption short, while perceptions of what corruption is and Purity.” Daedalus 147, no. 3: 98–110. and how to fight it differ, within an intensely Rubio, Luis. 2019. “Paso a paso.” México polarized setting, all tend to utilize and evalúa, October 14. https://www. weaponize the twin concepts of corruption mexicoevalua.org/2019/10/14/paso-a- and anti-corruption to pursue and protect paso/. This brief is drawn from their own political and economic interests. Transparency International. Corruption For some, of course, in today’s setting, the author’s book, Perception Index, 2020. https://www. trumpeting anti-corruption has become the transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index The Corruption Debates: path to power, while corruption remains the ———. Global Corruption Barometer. 2013. means to partake in the spoils. Left vs. Right—and https://www.transparency.org/ The study aims to contribute to a Does it Matter—in en/gcb/global/global-corruption- broader understanding of the breadth, barometer-2013 the Americas (Lynne scope, and political nature of corruption Rienner Press, 2021). and anti-corruption, and to their role in shaping and defining modern politics. Of course for observers of Mexico, AUTHOR understanding the politics of corruption continues to be central to understanding Stephen D. Morris, Ph.D.,is a nonresident the dynamics of Mexican politics. scholar at the Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico. He is currently on leave from his position as a professor in the REFERENCES Department of Political Science at Middle See more issue briefs at: www.bakerinstitute.org/issue-briefs Ansell, Aaron. 2018. “Impeaching Dilma Tennessee State University and an adjoint Rousseff: The Double Life of Corruption faculty member of the Center for Latin This publication was written by a Allegations on Brazil’s Political Right.” American Studies at Vanderbilt University. researcher (or researchers) who Culture, Theory, and Critique 59, no. 4: participated in a Baker Institute project. Wherever feasible, this research is 312–331. reviewed by outside experts before it is Gallup. 2013. “Americans Less Satisfied released. However, the views expressed With Freedom.” http://gallup.com/ herein are those of the individual poll/172019/americas-less-satisfied- author(s), and do not necessarily freedom.aspx. represent the views of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Morris, Stephen D. 1991. Corruption and Politics in Contemporary Mexico. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. © 2021 Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy ———. 2009. Political Corruption in Mexico: The Impact of Democratization. Boulder: This material may be quoted or Lynne Rienner. reproduced without prior permission, ———. 2018. “Variations on a Theme: provided appropriate credit is given to the author and Rice University’s Baker Corruption in Mexico and the U.S.” Institute for Public Policy. Canadian Social Science Journal 14, no. 12: 13–25. ———. 2021. The Corruption Debates: Left Cite as: vs. Right—and Does it Matter—in the Morris, Stephen D. 2021. Corruption and Anti-Corruption from the Left Americas. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. and Right in the Americas. Issue brief Government of Mexico. 2019. “Plan Nacional no. 07.20.21. Rice University’s Baker de Desarrollo, 2019–2024.” Diario oficial Institute for Public Policy, de la federación, July 12. https://www. Houston, Texas. dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=55 https://doi.org/10.25613/61ZB-RW45 65599&fecha=12/07/2019.

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