Corruption and Legitimation Crises in Latin America

17 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2015

See all articles by Angel R. Oquendo

Angel R. Oquendo

University of Connecticut - School of Law

Date Written: October 13, 2015

Abstract

Without doubt, pervasive corruption may undermine a government’s legitimacy. Citizens may lose faith in political and legal institutions and become cynical or rebel. Ultimately, the very survival of the polity may be at stake. This paper deals with these issues, but at a rather specific conceptual level. In particular, I intend to explore the notion of a legitimation crisis and its implications for the issue of corruption in Latin America. This exercise will make it possible to appreciate how corrupt practices debilitate the state’s claim to justification.

Indeed, the notion of a legitimation crisis helps to illuminate the problem of governmental dishonesty in Latin America. If properly reinterpreted, it enables one to grasp corruption as an endemic threat to the normative identity of the national communities. The concept may describe a situation in which these collectivities must, at the outset, transition from an instrumental to a reflexive construction of legitimacy norms, such as autonomy, legality, and equality, in order effectively to regenerate a corrupt bureaucracy and, thereafter, struggle to recognize themselves after the changeover.

Accordingly, one should not respond to the challenge exclusively in a technical manner, such as with the enactment of tougher laws or with the implementation of more drastic enforcement mechanisms. Nor should one take a merely motivational approach, in the sense of U.S. psychologist David McClelland, rather than that of Habermas. In other words, one should not solely seek to change the attitude or the prevailing professional culture in civil service. Instead, Latin American societies must embark upon an unlikely radical crusade to transform the way in which they understand themselves, particularly the premises of their social integration. Against all odds, they must genuinely commit to and identify with democracy, the rule of law, and solidarity.

Keywords: Corruption, Legitimacy, Habermas, Democracy, Solidarity, Rule of Law, Autonomy, Equality, Legality, Heteronomy, Inequality, Arbitrariness

Suggested Citation

Oquendo, Angel R., Corruption and Legitimation Crises in Latin America (October 13, 2015). Connecticut Journal of International Law, Vol. 14, No. 475, 1999, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2673481 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2673481

Angel R. Oquendo (Contact Author)

University of Connecticut - School of Law ( email )

65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
78
Abstract Views
558
Rank
559,388
PlumX Metrics