The growing empirical literature on political corruption shows trust (interpersonal and political) to be both cause and consequence of corruption: a conclusion that largely builds on studies using cross-national measures of corruption based on perceptions of corruption rather than actual experience, raising questions of endogeneity. The lack of trust fed by corruption is considered critical in that it undermines government efforts to mobilize society to help fight corruption and leads the public to routinely dismiss government promises to fight corruption. After disaggregating the major concepts, this article empirically explores the relationship linking corruption and trust in Mexico based on data from the 2004 Americas Barometer survey. The authors discover a powerful mutual causality between perceptions of corruption and trust in political institutions that suggests that rooting out perceptions of corruption or shoring up trust in public institutions will be an extremely difficult project for anyone who takes on the task.
An abundant empirical literature on corruption relying on survey research has emerged since the mid‐1990s. The predominant line of inquiry concerns perceptions of corruption with respect to institutions and processes. Another, separate line of inquiry that has enjoyed less attention concerns reports about individuals’ participation in corruption. These two dimensions of corruption, however, are typically conflated, leading to error and confusion. This article explores the relationship between the two and seeks to differentiate the two. Using data at the country and individual levels, analysis shows how the two may be only weakly related to one another – though causality remains unclear – and respond to distinct sets of determinants and generate distinct outcomes. The analysis underlines the need to specify the findings in the literature: that the causes and consequences of corruption relate more to ‘perceived’ corruption rather than actual corruption.
With the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement); the
EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional),
and political crisis/reform all
posing questions both old and new about Mexican nationalism, this article
reconsiders the dimensions of the subject, the issues, and the empirical evidence.
After setting out an analytical and theoretical framework for the study of
nationalism, it concentrates on the many components of Mexican nationalism, the
historic and on-going nationalist debates over the Indian, the American and the
state, and the nature of nationalist policies over the years. It then reviews
research related to such theoretical issues as the linkages between nationalist
sentiments, ideas and policies, the social bases of nationalist ideas and perceptions,
and the changes in nationalism. The article aims to place longstanding discussions
of Mexican nationalism in a theoretical context and to derive conclusions which
indicate appropriate directions for future research.
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