Demonstrators outside the ruling People’s Party headquarters in Madrid on February 4, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)
The European debt crisis and attendant recession has cause enormous pain for Spanish citizens. But today’s pain might lead to long-term gain, as a series of high-profile scandals have begun to turn the tide of public opinion against entrenched corruption.
Writing in TrustLaw, CIPE Senior Program Officer Anna Nadgrodkiewicz argues that a slew of recent corruption scandals, which sting all the more given the economic suffering of average citizens, may be catalyzing a wider movement.
“It will take more than name-and-shame or even high-level convictions” she writes. “The core of the problem lies in the rules for how political parties in Spain are financed and a widespread expectation that once a party wins the election that party’s officials will be placed in influential civil service positions.”
However, there are signs of the emergence of a popular movement against corruption that could help Spanish citizens root out these systemic problems.
Read the whole article at TrustLaw.
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/blogs/anti-corruption-views/spanish-recession-may-aid-anti-corruption-efforts/
