Sensational revelations of grand corruption—the abuse of entrusted power for private gain at high levels of influence—have marked the political tempo of Latin America for the first two decades of the 21^st century, with scandals such as Lava Jato and the Panama Papers acting as shocks to the political establishment in several countries. A growing body of literature has emerged to analyze this phenomenon and shed light on the determinants, characteristics, and effects of grand corruption across the region. In this chapter I focus on the scholarship assessing the political effects of grand corruption. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses, at the regional, national, and subnational levels, studies have underscored the highly contingent and conditional relation of grand corruption and political outcomes, from democratic support to party system institutionalization, from turnout rates to trust in public institutions. This ambivalent relation, a dance between indignation and resignation, highlights the importance of thinking about corruption within specific institutional and socioeconomic settings.

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