Social Mobilization and Anti-Corruption in Latin America

SEBASTIÁN PEREYRA; TOMÁS GOLD; MARÍA SOLEDAD GATTONI

Handbook of Latin American Social Movements

Oxford University Press

Lugar: New York; Año: 2023;

El ISBN de esta publicación está en trámite se consigna otro número de la misma editorial.Corruption scandals, pressallegations, impeachments, large-scale demonstrations against governmentalfigures and, lately, important judicial procedures against significantpolitical players, have all shaped the political landscape of Latin Americandemocracies. Nevertheless, anti-corruption movements have not emerged. As aconsequence, social movements studies have paid little attention toanti-corruption frames and critiques towards politics, while anti-corruptionresearch has not considered protest and social mobilization dynamics (dellaPorta, 2017; Bringel & Pleyers, 2017). This chapter explores the relationbetween social mobilization and corruption in Latin America. First, it reconstructs the emergenceand transnational diffusion of a strong anti-corruption and transparencyconsensus in the region during the nineties. Then, it analyses the way in which corruption as asocial problem was progressively incorporated into the frame of socialmobilization as a significant element of criticism and confrontation with party politics. Finally, through the lenses of a comparative analysis ofrecent large-scale anti-government demonstrations in Argentina, Brazil,Guatemala and Peru, the chapter claims that although perceptions of corruptiondo not directly translate into an anti-corruption movement, the anti-corruptionrhetoric has become a strategic framing for the spread of large-scaleanti-government demonstrations in the region allowing: a) a challenge topresidential figures; b) a critique of government politics in moral terms.