David Arellano‐Gault, Corruption in Latin America (New York: Routledge, 2020). 216 pp. $47.96 (paper), ISBN: 9781138583719

Published date01 September 2022
AuthorStephen D. Morris
Date01 September 2022
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13542
Book Reviews 965
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 82, Iss. 5, pp. 965–966. © 2022 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.13542.
Stephen D. Morris was researcher
at Coordinación de Humanidades
and Coordinator of the Laboratory
of Documentation and Analysis of
Corruption and Transparency, Instituto de
Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM from 2019-
2021, and professor of political science
and international relations at Middle
Tennessee State University, and author of
Political Corruption in Mexico: The Impact
of Democratization
(2009),
Corruption
and Politics in Latin America: National and
Regional Dynamics
(co-edited with Charles
Blake, 2010) and
Corruption and Democracy
in Latin America
(co-edited with Charles
Blake, 2009).
Email: Stephen.Morris@mtsu.edu
Reviewed by: Stephen D. Morris
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico
Middle Tennessee State University
David Arellano-Gault, Corruption in Latin America
(New York: Routledge, 2020).216 pp. $47.96 (paper),
ISBN: 9781138583719
Corruption is inherently political and
Corruption in Latin America offers the reader
insights into its political dimensions that
reach far beyond the title of the book. From a well-
established expert on corruption in Mexico, this work
in English presents David Arellano-Gault to a broader
audience. It also adds to Routledge’s growing library
on the study of corruption and anticorruption.
The book sports two sections that are, unfortunately,
somewhat loosely connected. The two chapters
contained in the initial section focus on theory. They
lay out in an easy-to-read manner the underlying
political dimensions of corruption from two distinct
angles. Echoing the views of Michael Johnston
and other critics of what can be considered the
orthodox approach, the opening chapter affirms the
political construction of the prevailing definition and
understanding of corruption. Noting how “defining
corruption is an act of power” (33), Arellano-Gault
characterizes how this political battle has fostered an
international anticorruption regime that reflects and
promotes certain political interests. Although this
initial chapter stresses how at the macro level, or a
sort of top-down view, politics and political interests
shape our analytical and theoretical understanding
of corruption, the partner chapter in the opening
section shifts gears by describing how politics at the
micro level within organizations creates corruption.
Building on the author’s prior work, he depicts
corruption as a social relationship embedded
within organizations, established over time, and
rooted in mechanisms for the reciprocal exchange
of favors. The author illustrates the mechanisms
of corruption at the organizational level through a
detailed analysis of the informal institution in Mexico
known as palanca (leverage). Something found in
other countries throughout the world, the palanca is
rooted in personal relationships and the reciprocity
of favors: the “trafficking in personal relationships”
(83). Employing a semiotic approach designed
to help capture how people lend meaning to the
practice, Arellano-Gault reports on a study based
on focus groups in Mexico composed of workers,
public officials, and students as proxies for citizens.
The quotes from the individuals neatly describe how
the leveraging of personal relationships is perceived
and interpreted by the different participants and,
more importantly, how such practices address and
overcome everyday problems. Discussion highlights
the usefulness and rules of etiquette, the palanca’s
dark side, the density of social relations, the logic of
the exchange of favors, and the palanca’s ambiguous
relationship to corruption. Noting the “double-edge
sword,” the analysis locates the “weak and complex
border” (91) that the palanca inhabits.
Together, the book’s initial theoretical section exposes,
at an analytical level, the political construction of
the concept of corruption by political interests and,
from a sociological and anthropological level, the
phenomena of corruption embedded within the
organization rooted in personal relationships and
the exchange of favors. Implicitly building on these
theoretical lenses, the second section of the book
presents a comparative analysis of anticorruption
agencies in Latin America with chapters devoted
to Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Guatemala.

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