POLITICAL MORAL LAXITY AS A SYMPTOM OF SYSTEM JUSTIFICATION IN ARGENTINA, COLOMBIA, AND PERU

Political moral laxity (PML) is defined as a set of political beliefs and attitudes held by citizens that tolerate and favor dishonest and corrupt actions on the part of politicians and authorities. In this scenar-io, the objective of this study is to analyze how ideology and social dominance orientation (SDO), perceptions of legitimacy, and trust in institutions (government, congress, and judiciary) are related to PML in three Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, and Peru). To this end, a survey study was carried out among citizens from the three countries mentioned above (n = 854). The results show that moral laxity is predicted directly and consistently in all three countries, by SDO. Likewise, perceived lack of legitimacy in the political system is inversely related to moral laxity in Colombia and Pe-ru; although it predicts moral laxity only in the latter country. On the other hand, the results show that moral laxity is a symptomatic indicator of conservative expressions of system justification where a good exercise of governance, transparency, and procedural and distributive justice are not always available for vast groups of citizens.