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Implicit Costs of Empire: Bureaucratic Corruption in Nineteenth-Century Cuba

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2003

ALFONSO W. QUIROZ
ALFONSO W. QUIROZ
Affiliation:
Baruch College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC.
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Abstract

Cycles of bureaucratic corruption in nineteenth-century Cuba evolved according to institutional conditions shaped by interest groups, financial needs, imperatives of colonial governance, and internal conflicts and war. Corrupt gain inimical to general public interest was not a consequence of cultural constants, but of unreconstructed institutional flaws and weaknesses. The risks of engaging in bureaucratic corruption diminished under the systematic condoning of administrative faults, collusive allowance of illegal slave trafficking, and a code of illegal rewards expected by loyalist officials opposing colonial reform. Despite some few anti-corruption initiatives, the prosecution and punishment of corrupt officials was lax. The implicit, yet significant, financial, institutional and political costs of corruption contributed to the demise of Spanish imperial dominion over Cuba and left a damaging burden and legacy for Cuban civil society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , August 2003 , pp. 473 - 511
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Research in Cuba and Spain was possible thanks to awards from the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Relations. I greatly appreciate comments from Kenneth Andrien, Carolyn Boyd, Ana Cairo, José Cayuela, Joan Casanovas, John Coatsworth, Kenneth Mills, Rafael Tarragó and anonymous reviewers.