Populism, corruption and accountability on April 12, 2018Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, both professors of Government at Harvard University, have argued, in their recently published book How Democracies Die, that since Cold War’s end, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves. Populist elected leaders, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, have subverted democratic institutions […]
Corruption and its discontents on May 17, 2017In 1882, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, in his book The Gay Science, that corruption is simply the sign of the autumn of a nation. Corruption, the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, is the primary obstacle to economic and social development. On the economic front, corruption stifles development, shaves off growth, misallocates resources, […]