The paper analyses the nexus between corruption and populism in democratic countries. Corruption gives credence to the idea that political elites are just serving themselves and working against the people. This, in turn, strengthens the populist narrative and allows populists to stylize themselves as the defenders of the people against the elites. The populist message of a corrupt elite responsible for a system that harms the people falls then on fertile ground when corruption is perceived to be a problem in the country. Evidence of large-scale corruption practices in the public sector is at the same time a signal of the failure of the institutional and societal accountability over the integrity and effectiveness in public agents’ delegation of power, and a challenge to all the basic principles of democratic. government such as equality, responsiveness, accountability, transparency. Corruption within democracy is necessarily also corruption of democracy. In what follows, we will seek to disentangle analytically the causal nexus between corruption (and its politicization) and populism, considering also the role of neoliberal ideology as a facilitating factor
The corruption of democracy between neoliberalism and populism
Vannucci A.
;Rispoli F
2022-01-01
Abstract
The paper analyses the nexus between corruption and populism in democratic countries. Corruption gives credence to the idea that political elites are just serving themselves and working against the people. This, in turn, strengthens the populist narrative and allows populists to stylize themselves as the defenders of the people against the elites. The populist message of a corrupt elite responsible for a system that harms the people falls then on fertile ground when corruption is perceived to be a problem in the country. Evidence of large-scale corruption practices in the public sector is at the same time a signal of the failure of the institutional and societal accountability over the integrity and effectiveness in public agents’ delegation of power, and a challenge to all the basic principles of democratic. government such as equality, responsiveness, accountability, transparency. Corruption within democracy is necessarily also corruption of democracy. In what follows, we will seek to disentangle analytically the causal nexus between corruption (and its politicization) and populism, considering also the role of neoliberal ideology as a facilitating factorI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
