Corruption, organized crime and democracy

Abstract

This discussion reveals new faces of the classic diagnosis about the deterioration that corruption causes in the possibility of democratic management. The analysis of corruption is joined with that of organized crime, since there is no organized crime without corruption, a finding that occurs simultaneously with the perception of corruption as one of the forms of organized crime, which radically questions the foundations of government practices, opening gaps between "what is" and what "should be" in management, undermining trust in politics. The invention of new forms and contents of political action appears as an efficient antidote against the crimes that concern us. We can suppose that the emphasis placed on this process, of co-participation in public management, on visibility, on the critique of lies and secrecy in politics, demonstrates a will for change that may be able to address contemporary challenges.