Victims of Corruption: Integral Reparation and Institutional Trust as Cores of Anticorruption Strategies

Abstract

In the context of the current anti-corruption discourse, it is critical to consider the systemic and structural manipulation of institutions, which potentially increases social/interpersonal and institutional distrust and lack of confidence, and creates the perception of “institutional vacuums” and institutional illegitimacy. In the long run, this dynamic creates a vicious circle between lower social/ interpersonal and institutional trust and higher corruption. Bearing this in mind, in this paper it is argued that integral reparation of individual, collective, and social victims of corruption should be a core principle of any anti-corruption discourse and practice that seeks to restore social/interpersonal and institutional trust and legitimacy. This paper consists of four sections. After the introduction, in the second section it is analyzed how institutional distrust is an unexpected consequence of exposing Macro- corruption and institutional cooptation. In the third section the main strategies for restoring social/interpersonal and institutional trust are discussed. In the final section it is considered the role of integral reparation actions to restore trust and confidence among individual, collective, and social agents.