Corruption & trust in government: Mexico and Colombia 2010-2017

Absztrakt (kivonat)

Governments exercise an important role into the matter of public safety, democracy, justice and public good in order to provide welfare to its population. However, during the last years the government of Mexico and Colombia have showed weak participation, lack of authority and many political actors and institutions at the local, national and international level were involved in corruption scandals. This situation led to social insecurity among their citizens, which perceived their own governments and institutions as untrustworthy. The purpose of this research was to analyze the perception of corruption and trust in public institutions for the case of Mexico and Colombia during 2010 to 2017. Therefore, the research question is the following: In which way where correlated the perception of corruption and trust in government in Mexico and Colombia from 2010 to 2017? This research started with the hypothesis that the perception of corruption towards Government have increased during the last years in Mexico and Colombia impacting directly the trust from citizens towards them contemplating an empirical and theoretical approach. The theoretical approach suggested that indeed, there is a relationship between the perception of corruption and trust in government in Mexico and Colombia, in a way that scandals of corruption and experiences of corruption with public servants decreased trust in the different branches of government in Mexico and Colombia during 2010 to 2017. Regarding, the empirical approach the Model of perception of corruption and institutional trust developed for the years 2014 and 2016/2017 and based on data from the LAPOP Americas Barometer also showed that there is a direct relationship between these two factors. In a way that when the perception of corruption increases, the index of trust in institutions decreases.