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Abstract: The article analyzes the relationship between perceptions of corruption and democratic legitimacy in Latin America based on the multidimensional structure of legitimacy. The paper differentiates the perception of corruption into two independent variables: politicians and bureaucrats. We used a quantitative analysis of the Americas Barometer (AB) survey in its 2018/2019 round of questions. The results of the study indicate that the perception of corruption weakens democratic legitimacy in Latin America not only with respect to more specific levels of political support, but also with respect to diffuse support for the regime in general, compromising the legitimacy and stability of democracy in the region. Our results also suggest that the impact of perceptions of legitimacy differs when the independent variable is politicians or public officials, being more negative for the regime when citizens perceive the political class as corrupt.
Almeida et al. (Wed,) studied this question.