Corruption, Economic Satisfaction, and Confidence in Government; Evidence from Argentina

This paper provides a micro-level foundation for understanding the political effects of corruption. It takes the case of Argentina in 1995 to investigate the relation between citizens’ perception of corruption and their confidence in elected governments by focusing on the Argentinian case in 1995. The authors argue that the effect of corruption on public confidence in government is linked to economic performance. They argue that the combination of poor economic performance alongside corruption can cause high levels of dissatisfaction amongst voters. The Argentinian case shows that Carlos Mnem (Argentina’s former president) was able to win his second term despite the wide spread charges of corruption issued against him and his government due to the country’s good economic performance during that period. However as the economy began to sour by 1999 Mnem’s corruption become intolerable for the voters and resulted in poor electoral performance for his party.