What can we realistically do against corruption?
Pedro Sánchez is expected to propose a series of measures to combat corruption. We'll see. There's a danger of approaching the phenomenon as if it were a problem of greed or lack of integrity on the part of various politicians or officials, given that the proliferation of cases is due to a combination of factors: the long-standing culture of corruption that has characterized Spanish (and Catalan) politics during long periods of non-democracy, and oligarchies due to the prevailing neoliberal economic model—which has forged a series of counter-values that make it more efficient to accept a certain degree of transgression if it acts as a lever for material progress.
For years, this scourge had been fostered by the democratic immaturity of the post-Franco era and the poor management of the historical memory of the Transition, forging a generation of citizens like our parents, uncritical of lies and depravity. The climate of economic prosperity in the 1990s and early 2000s was conducive to many, in the midst of irrational exuberance, thinking like that candidate for president of a Brazilian state: "I never stealThe difference is that now there's a growing weariness that only benefits populist options and the far right. Therefore, without alarmism, we must pay attention to some precedents of uninspiring political change, such as the Italian one of the 1990s, where the annoyance over Tangentopoli led to the implosion of the traditional party system in favor of the .
As for Catalonia, I recommend setting aside moral sufficiency and admitting that corruption has also existed in our country, and that it is not a legacy of Spanish public tradition, from which, incidentally, the Principality benefited during the Restoration or the two dictatorships of the 20th century. There is no divine and distinguished determinism between an industrial north and when speaking of Protestant morality and the origin of capitalism. Here, moreover, corruption has been political, not administrative: the civil servant-politician ratio, in light of judicialized cases, is 1 to 10, unlike in African kleptocracies, for example, where it is unheard of to come across an honest civil servant. Local government, where urban planning, especially in coastal municipalities, enjoys a high degree of discretion.
However, it must be acknowledged that reliable statistical data is lacking. Demographic studies by the CEO or the CIS reflect that public perception is always higher than reality. Transparency International works with these same parameters. But public perception is conditioned by the mood that arises when certain episodes, such as the one currently plaguing the PSOE, erupt. In any case, admitting that corruption is primarily political, a historical statistical series of data from the Prosecutor's Office or the CGPJ reveals that the proportion of cases in court relative to the number of elected officials is 0.7%. In other words, there are many more honest politicians than corrupt ones.
This does not mean that there is no need to improve the attitude of politicians and political parties. One of the major problems is that modern politics is held hostage by an increasingly competitive and burdensome party system that sidelines the public interest and adopts a patrimonial conception of power. A change in political culture is needed to reinforce public values and ethics. Institutions that inspire trust, that manage in the best possible way what belongs to everyone and for everyone, and that lay the foundations for real, not just apparent, change. This civic virtue requires, of course, a republican stance, that is, the active participation of citizens in public affairs and events. Citizens must emerge from their individuality and passivity. This means greater transparency to ward off the danger of arbitrary practices, complying with the framework for infractions and sanctions for politicians and public officials who fail to comply with the law and ethical codes, providing parties with only sufficient public funding, and further tightening economic and financial controls over parties and administrations and the awarding of public contracts.
