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Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

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Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#111

Post by Apaec »

diego_moita wrote: post #41

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

In Peru we have an equivalent phrase for "rouba mas faz", the "roba pero hace obra", also a popular justification that got a corrupt major elected for Lima, even when major media outlets showed proofs of corruption.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#112

Post by muthdra »

TremendousJudge wrote: post #47
onetimemanytime wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Like in most of the 3rd world ...voters don't understand how corruption, nepotism, patronage and incompetence affects them. All the above in US is called "lobbying" and it's legal, so you really can't jail anyone for it. USA voters don't do much better, don't worry. We just have a printing machine that churns out new dollars at record pace so we face no debt deadlines.

Brazil is much, much worse off than the US. There the corruption goes all the way to the lowest levels of government. In the US local politicians don't pay a couple of bucks to a thousand dirt poor voters to vote in the county elections so they can win. In Brazil this happens everywhere.

As the nephew of a former mayor of a small town of about 5k people in Brazil, I heard most people who get into office here can't possibly make back in salary all the money they spent buying votes before the election so the system itself usually removes the least corrupt candidates automatically.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#113

Post by wallflower »

dashoffset wrote: post #84
wallflower wrote: post #36

On the topic of corruption, my Spanish teacher said that countries where corruption is endemic and part of the culture almost always started out as "extraction colonies". That is, the natural resources were plundered by the colonizers (the Spaniards or the British or the French). What present day politicians are doing is simply continuing the strong historical precedent of taking out riches/prosperity/profits/resourc…

> countries where corruption is endemic and part of the culture almost always started out as "extraction colonies". This is an overly simplified, albeit correct, way to explain it.

In case you see this, can you please point me to any resources /books on a non-overly simplified way to explain the roots of corruption in Latin American countries?

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#114

Post by dashoffset »

wallflower wrote: post #113
dashoffset wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> countries where corruption is endemic and part of the culture almost always started out as "extraction colonies". This is an overly simplified, albeit correct, way to explain it.

In case you see this, can you please point me to any resources /books on a non-overly simplified way to explain the roots of corruption in Latin American countries?

I would start with "The causes of corruption" by Daniel Treisman. It isn't specific to Latin America, though.

In summary, Treisman will show that many factors appear to have an influence on whether a country is more or less corrupt. The colonial past of Latin American countries helps to explain part of it, but it doesn't appear to be a causa sine qua non.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#115

Post by wallflower »

dashoffset wrote: post #114
wallflower wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you see this, can you please point me to any resources /books on a non-overly simplified way to explain the roots of corruption in Latin American countries?

I would start with "The causes of corruption" by Daniel Treisman. It isn't specific to Latin America, though. In summary, Treisman will show that many factors appear to have an influence on whether a country is more or less corrupt. The colonial past of Latin American countries helps to explain part of it, but it doesn't appear to be a causa sine qua non.

Thank you! I have started reading the paper, and it is interesting to read how the author lays out his hypotheses.

Most intriguing is the link between how judicial systems that were setup to support the king may tend to be more corrupt since they were literally robbing property/money from his subjects. On the other side, the British system relies on judicial precedents and process, helping ensure a more fair trial between the government and property owners/business people.

https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/131389/original/Treisman2...

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