Corruption in the Americas

This edited collection analyzes trends of corruption in countries throughout the Americas. The contributors examine the main actors involved in corruption as well as the linkages between organized crime and state institutions.

For some states in Latin America, corruption is not simply an industry, but rather it is part of the political system. This collection studies the nature of corruption and its recent trends through expert contributions from scholars from the region who have diverse scholarly backgrounds, theoretical orientations, and methodologies. Through case studies of countries throughout the Americas, the contributors analyze the links between corruption and organized crime, the main actors involved in corruption, governmental responses to corruption, and the impact that corruption has on governmental institutions and people’s faith in them.

Chapter One: A Little Lower than the Angels: Problems of Corruption and Obligation: A Conceptual Review

Bradford R. McGuinn

Chapter Two: Corruption, Violence, and State Fragility in Mexico: An Examination of the Recent Challenges and Opportunities

Roberto Zepeda and Jonathan D. Rosen

Chapter Three: Guatemala, a Captured State

Adriana Beltrán

Chapter Four: Corruption in Colombia

Fernando Cepeda Ulloa

Chapter Five: Corruption in Peru in the Twenty-First Century: A Tsunami of Scandals, A Tsunami of Prosecution

Cynthia McClintock

Chapter Six: “The Police are Involved in Everything”: Corruption and the Corrupt in Bolivia

Marten Brienen

Chapter Seven: Organized Crime and the State in Brazil

Michael Jerome Wolff