Democratic development and corruption perception in Latin America during 2002-2014: A widespread setback

This paper explains the democratic development in Latin American states during the period of 2002-2014, in a context of corruption perception and conventions against corruption. Applying a statistical analysis of both Democratic Development Index of Latin America and Worldwide Governance Indicators “Control of Corruption”, it proposes three hypotheses to explain Latin American democracy in relation with indicators that measure corruption perception and conventions that fight it. The results rejected them as they show a widespread trend of setback in both sources and a weak correlation between their differences during the period analysed. Corruption perception neither corresponds with the advances of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption nor with some of the national anti-corruption policies in Latin American states. The corruption perception is best determined by structural variables like social welfare and institutional quality.