Is it seeing believing? Why did advances in measuring corruption not lead to its decline in Latin America?

There is a general agreement that corruption hinders socio-economic development, weakens democracy, and the general well-being of citizens. It is not a privilege of Capitalism, Socialism, or Communism. But ideologies apart, we can generally find it as part of the interface between economic agents and interest groups interacting with the State (or an authority bearer). As a social, political, and economical phenomenon it takes different forms, and sometimes even forms that people do not relate to corruption itself. Since the 80´s a lot has been done in terms of defining and measuring corruption, and in doing so, identifying its impacts and providing objective elements to anti-corruption policies to reduce its negative effects on society's development. Compared to their manifestations in different regions of the world, we are surprised by both the similarities and the differences. Despite the application of different anti-corruption strategies, we see that corruption persists and often resists the most well-proposed public policies, especially in Latin America. Our work points out that corruption is a complex issue, and therefore must have a systemic, plural, and transdisciplinary treatment. Approaching it from the theory of Complexity allows us to capture its different nuances. Through the critical analysis of the main currents of thought on the subject, we can search not only for their conclusions but also their shortfalls. Each different one gives us one partial vision, but assembling those different visions, similarly to a kaleidoscope, we can find a new angle and a new construct to the phenomenon. In doing such we aim to jump from simple cause-and-effect relationships for a complex systemic analysis in which we will use the dialectical method to consolidate our study, taking as a basis specific analyses both descriptive and econometric. In doing so, measuring corruption is not an end, but a means to construct partial and specific dimensions that, when put together, can help us to construct a vision closer to reality. Recognizing that it is a phenomenon that can´t be fully measured it´s a good start to understand it. Finding the shortfalls and contradictions in its measurement is also an important part of understanding it. With this work, we will provide elements to deepen its analysis, framing corruption in the context of the Latin American capitalist system both as an element of competition between capital/interest groups and as a tool to promote capital accumulation. To achieve it we use both econometric, political, and historical analysis. In so we can study simultaneously the effects of corruption on inequality on poverty and in the relation between the State and groups of interest (economical but also political). Most of the time partial visions let us see some branches of the problem, without letting us see the roots of it. We conclude that the main cause of corruption resilience is that anti-corruption policies have been inefficient mainly because of aiming at the wrong target.