The two biggest countries of Northern America, United States of America and Canada are countries associated with prosperity rather than need. Both are major donors of aid to poorer countries. Yet there is poverty even in affluent North America – and most of it is in rural areas.
In general, Latin America is a continent full of contrast, determined by a wide variety of climates and natural resources; it also occupies the status as having some of the most corrupted countries in the world. For many decades Latin American presidents have faced coups and judicial proceedings for corruption cases, Pinochet and Fujimori are clear examples. These violations to democracy and citizen rights have resulted in the lack of credibility in the governors and government institutions by the population.
Latin America’s institutions are viewed as obsoletes, and due to the high corruption public officials are involved into, the inexistence of governmental institutions provide more chances for all types of corruption, among others, cronyism and embezzlement. Another important factor inducing to corruption in the Latin states is the lack of vertical accountability, which is the standard citizens must have for their political leaders and the punishment they should receive, if doing something wrong.
This creates loss of public confidence in the institutions of democracy, losing their legitimacy among their citizens. Some of the most common examples of corruption are related to taxation, distribution of public resources and trade regulations.
For the most part, the difference between the problems in the States and problems in the developing world is their scale. There are too many people in the US that don’t have enough resources to eat everyday, but per capita and in its severity, hunger is a far more damaging problem in much of the developing world than it is in the world’s largest superpower. Poverty is another one of these problems that exists all around the world, but in different...