The scope and significance of corruption inLatin America have long transcended the writers attention to it. But beginning around mid-1990s, things began to change. Accompanying the transformative political and economic changes sweeping the world, interest in corruption increased. Yardsticks measuring and comparing corruption across countries proliferated. Since then, scholars from various disciplines analysts from major international financial institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), national governments, and throngs of activists have produced a growing body of work that seeks to gauge the level and nature of corruption, assess the nuanced views of the public on the subject, detail the weaknesses of institutions of accountability, pinpoint the pernicious impact of corruption on the economy and the political system, and offer an assortment of tools and approaches to battle corruption.