LOW LEVELS OF CORRUPTiON iN CHiLE: A CASE STUDY OF SEBASTiÁN PiÑERA
Introduction:
While international rankings classify Chile as a country with low levels of corruption, it was rampant during Sebastián Piñera's administration. This essay focuses on the nepotism that occurred during Piñera's first term as later revealed by the Pandora Papers scandal of 2021.
Context:
In the academic literature, many authors argue that Chile is a remarkable democracy due to its low levels of corruption when compared to the Latin American region as whole (Brinegar 2009, 133). This idea is further confirmed by Transparency International, an NGO that monitors corruption levels worldwide and prepares a metric called the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). According to the 2020 CPI, Chile ranks as the 25th least corrupt nation in the world and the 2nd least in Latin America (Warf and Stewart 2016, 141). While Transparency International has ranked Chile as a country with low corruption, such is not the case because of the high levels of presidential corruption in Sebastian Piñera’s first term. This will be proven through a careful examination of nepotism as a form of corruption as revealed through the Pandora Papers scandal.
Author: Fabiola Cruz Li
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