The ideological dimension of anticorruption discourses in Colombia and Ecuador, 2002-2017

Abstract

Object/Context: This article analyses and compares the ideological dimension of anticorruption discourses and policies in Colombia during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018) and in Ecuador during the presidency of Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Methodology: We develop an ideological and discourse analysis of corruption discourses combining the theoretical framework of Laclau and Mouffe on discourse analysis with the morphological analysis of ideologies developed by Michael Freeden. We utilize this theoretical framework in order to analyze both qualitatively and quantitatively anticorruption discourses and policies. Conclusions: In the Colombian case the anticorruption discourse of presidents Uribe and Santos (2002-2018) legitimized a neoliberal order by articulating corruption as a phenomenon that belongs primarily to the public sphere. The government of Correa (2007-2017), however, identified corruption primarily with the private sector. As a consequence, his anticorruption discourse served to resist the neoliberal order and legitimize the ideology of the twenty first-century socialism. Originality: There are very few studies that unearth the ideological dimension of anticorruption discourses and policies. This paper seeks to fill this vacuum by utilizing an innovative theoretical framework that allows us to identify the ways in which anticorruption discourses and policies serve to legitimize and implement a political ideology.