| Popis: |
Courts prosecuting corruption serve a critical horizontal accountability function, but they can also play a role in moments of vertical accountability when voters have the opportunity to sanction corrupt candidates. This article documents the strategic use of corruption lawsuits, demonstrating the presence of an electoral cycle in the filing of new corruption accusations against politicians. Using an original dataset of daily corruption complaints filed in federal courts against members of Argentina’s main political coalitions between 2013 and 2021, we document an increase in corruption accusations against and by politicians in the periods immediately preceding an election. A second dataset of daily media coverage of corruption accusations in two leading newspapers suggests that corruption is indeed more salient prior to elections, offering politicians a temporal focal point to prepare and launch especially impactful lawsuits. Our findings shed new light on the use of courts as a tool for accountability as well as on debates about the so-called ‘lawfare’ in Latin America. |
