This volume stresses the need for a comparative approach when dealing with the funding of party politics and a major related aspect - corruption. This topic lies at the heart of any realistic discussion of the logic of democratic representation. Corruption, or the perception of corruption, has led to an ever-increasing concern with political financing. In some cases the trend is toward a greater role for the state in financing political parties, in others the reverse is true. In this collection the individual experiences of several Latin American countries (including Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela) are examined against the background of Western Europe, with a view to identifying similarities as well as differences. Given the centrality of political parties to liberal democracies, this subject is of great significance. Contributors include Angel Alvarez (Universidad Central, Venezuela), Kevin Casas Zamora (University of Costa Rica), Fernando Cepeda Ulloa (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia), Pilar del Castillo (Spanish Minister of Education), Justin Fisher (University of Brunel), Manuel Antonio Garreton (University of Chile), Emilio Lama de Espinosa (Real Instituto Espanol Elcano de Relaciones Internacionales y Estrategicas, Madrid, Spain), Juan Molinar Horcasitas (Partido de Accion Nacional, Mexico), Michael Pinto-Duschinsky (University of Brunel), Weronique Pujas (University of Grenoble, France), Martin Rhodes (European University Institute, Florence, Italy), Diego Urbaneja (Universidad Central, Venezuela), and Laurence Whitehead (Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK).

In some Latin American countries, traffickers equipped with vast resources have corrupted individuals in every aspect of public life, compromising the integrity of entire national institutions - the political system and the judiciary, the military, the police, and banking and financial systems. Moreover, Latin America, like Europe and the USA, has a drug consumption problem. Yet, drug control in Latin America is beset with contradictions. For some Latin Americans, illicit drug production in the form of coca cultivation is a traditional way of life, and has often been an economic bulwark against destitution. Attempts to control the drug trade, while absorbing vast resources, have been largely ineffectual and have had dramatic and unintended consequences. This book analyses the profound consequences that the illicit drug trade has for millions of Latin Americans, and what they imply for domestic policy and for international cooperation. Latin America and the Multinational Drug Trade is essential reading for students of Latin America, politics, international relations, security studies, foreign policy, economic development, criminology and law, and for anyone interested in the politics and economics of the global illicit drug trade.