Effective governance is the way to creating better societies

Fighting corruption will not bring an end to poverty and casting the bad into the sea does not imply that good will come ashore, says Ricardo Hausmann.

COUNTRIES are poor because governments are corrupt. And, unless they ensure that public resources are not stolen, and that public power is not used for private gain, they will remain poor, right?

It certainly is tempting to believe so. Here, after all, is a narrative that neatly aligns the promise of prosperity with the struggle against injustice. As Pope Francis said on his recent trip to Latin America: “corruption is the moth, the gangrene of a people”. The corrupt deserve to be “tied to a rock and cast into the sea”. Perhaps they do. But that won’t necessarily make their countries more prosperous.