Just as its constitutional development is characterised by frequent change and substantial concentration of power, the Latin American and the Caribbean area is known to host some of the most corrupt countries of the world. A group of countries such as Chile, Barbados and Uruguay, however, report levels of corruption similar to those displayed by most European countries. We ask whether the concentration of power in the executive, as well as in the national parliament in this particular region, affect how corrupt a society is. Using panel data from 22 Latin America and Caribbean countries from 1970 to 2014, we find that constitutional power concentration is in fact a determinant of corruption. Yet, the constitutional provisions allocating powers of government appear only to be consistently important when parliament is ideologically fractionalised.

中文翻译：

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宪法权力集中和腐败：来自拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的证据

正如其宪政发展的特点是频繁的变化和权力的大量集中，众所周知，拉丁美洲和加勒比地区拥有世界上一些最腐败的国家。然而，智利、巴巴多斯和乌拉圭等国家报告的腐败程度与大多数欧洲国家所显示的相似。我们询问行政部门以及该特定地区国家议会的权力集中是否会影响社会的腐败程度。使用 1970 年至 2014 年 22 个拉丁美洲和加勒比国家的面板数据，我们发现宪法权力集中实际上是腐败的决定因素。然而，分配政府权力的宪法条款似乎只有在议会在意识形态上分裂时才始终重要。