Prosecutors, Voters, and the Criminalization of Corruption in Latin America

Ezequiel A. Gonzalez-Ocantos is Associate Professor and Fellow of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America and The Politics of Transitional Justice in Latin America. Paula Muñoz is Associate Professor at the Universidad del Pacífico. She is the author of Buying Audiences: Clientelism and Electoral Campaigns When Parties are Weak. Nara Pavão is Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Her research focuses on political behavior and comparative politics. Viviana Baraybar Hidalgo is a DPhil student in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and a member of Nuffield College. Her research focuses on the study of corruption and political behavior.

• 1. Introduction: anti-Corruption crusades; Part I. Causes: 2. The drivers of prosecutorial zeal: institutional change and three 'Moments' (with stories from Brazil, Italy and Beyond); 3. Lava Jato in Peru: taking on the political and judicial establishments; 4. One crusade and two failed inquiries: Ecuador, Argentina and Mexico; Part II. Public: 5. Fighting corruption, curbing cynicism? Crusades, emotions and the future of politics; 6. Of cockroaches and superheroes: Talking about Lava Jato in Brazil and Peru; 7. Is prosecutorial zeal what partisans make of it? Survey evidence from Brazil; 8. Prosecutorial Trade-Offs and the precarity of hope: Survey evidence from Peru; Part III. Conclusions: 9. Theoretical lessons and a normative assessment; Bibliography; Index.

'Through a masterful, multi-method analysis of the origins and effects of the Lava Jato prosecutions in Latin America, this book demonstrates that institutional reforms are necessary but not sufficient to generate anti-corruption crusades, and that the decisions made by judges and prosecutors in the investigatory process are crucial to their ultimate success or failure.' Lisa Hilbink, University of Minnesota