Why do politicians practice corrupt acts? The dynamics of political competition has been presented as a major explanatory factor of corruption. To understand the effects of political competition is, nonetheless, necessary to analyze the different incentives arising from the competition dynamics. In order to bring about this analysis, thearticle examines the explanatory power of four specific characteristics of political competition: the competitiveness of elections, the strength of the opposition, the mechanism of reelection, and the structure of coalitions. Such analysis is based on reports, made public by the CGU, providing information about corruption in a random exam of Brazilian municipalities. The results indicate that the mechanism of reelection and the margin of victory in the elections contribute to the explanation of corruption.
Corruption; Political competition; Institutions; Election
