ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 studies the case of the anticorruption agency (ACA) of Argentina and what we can define as its desperate effort to survive in the face of boycotts and threats from the very political system it seeks to control. The case of the Anticorruption Office of Argentina (OAA) is a “classical” anticorruption agency. Born in 1999, the case shows in a longitudinal way the dramatic moments and challenges that an ACA has faced in order to legitimize itself and survive in a context of systemic corruption. The case reflects a process full of contingencies and political–cultural considerations that demand as the most important objective for the organization a constant rethinking and adaptation for survival. Survival involves waiting for the consolidation of the agency, for the arriving at a political moment in Argentina where this agency becomes so legitimate and strong that it could become indispensable or at least normal in the political system. This chapter shows that, in situations of systemic corruption such as the one experienced in this Latin American country, an ACA is an organization “under fire” (even under siege): politically, in terms of budget, even legally. The study of the ACA of Argentina allows observation of how these organizations operate in contexts that continually force them to seek legitimacy to survive, as a first condition to obtain enough support to continue existing with the complex mission of reducing corruption under extended and normalized levels of corruption in the political sytem.
