| 1. |
- Agerberg, Mattias, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Personal Proximity and Reactions to Terrorism
- 2021
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 54:14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a panel study where one survey was conducted immediately after a terrorist attack in central Stockholm, with over 20,000 participants, we examine the possibility that first-hand experiences with terror increases effects compared to people located elsewhere in Sweden. We use matching and as-if random variation in our data to identify the effect of personal proximity. While we find that people close to the attack perceived themselves as more affected, attesting to the vividness of the experience, we find no evidence of stronger rally effects, greater outgroup dislike, preferences for security policies or emotional effects. The results challenge previous theories on public opinion change in the aftermath of vivid events. In line with prior research, however, the results indicate that public opinion among people across Sweden did change on a range of issues. These general effects occurred uniformly, regardless of geographic location in the country.
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| 2. |
- Agerberg, Mattias, 1986
(författare)
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The Lesser Evil? Corruption Voting and the Importance of Clean Alternatives
- 2020
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 53:2, s. 253-287
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Surveys show that citizens in all parts of the world have a strong distaste for corruption. At the same time, and contrary to the predictions of democratic theory, politicians involved in the most glaring abuse of public office often continue to receive electoral support. Using an original survey experiment conducted in Spain, this article explores a previously understudied aspect of this apparent paradox: the importance of viable and clean political alternatives. The results suggest that voters do punish political corruption when a clean alternative exists, even when the corrupt candidate is very appealing in other respects. However, when only given corrupt alternatives, respondents become much more likely to tolerate a candidate accused of corruption—even when given a convenient “no-choice” option. I discuss how these results can help us understand corruption voting and why some societies seem to be stuck in a high-corruption equilibrium. © The Author(s) 2019.
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| 3. |
- Aidt, Toke S., et al.
(författare)
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From Open to Secret Ballot : Vote Buying and Modernization
- 2017
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : Sage Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 50:5, s. 555-593
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of democracy. We contend that the historical process of modernization caused the switch from open to secret ballot with the underlying mechanism being that income growth, urbanization, and rising education standards undermined vote markets. We undertake event history studies of ballot reform in Western Europe and the U.S. states during the 19th and 20th centuries to establish that modernization was systematically related to ballot reform. We study electoral turnout before and after ballot reform among the U.S. states and British parliamentary constituencies to substantiate the hypothesis that modernization reduced the volume of trade in the vote market.
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| 4. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Insider or Outsider? Grand Corruption and Electoral Accountability
- 2018
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 51:4, s. 415-446
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While democratic accountability is widely expected to reduce corruption, citizens to a surprisingly large extent opt to forgo their right to protest and voice complaints, and refrain from using their electoral right to punish corrupt politicians. This article examines how grand corruption and elite collusion influence electoral accountability, in particular citizens’ willingness to punish corrupt incumbents. Using new regional-level data across 21 European countries, we provide clear empirical evidence that the level of societal grand corruption in which a voter finds herself systematically affects how she responds to a political corruption scandal. Grand corruption increases loyalty to corrupt politicians, demobilizes the citizenry, and crafts a deep divide between insiders, or potential beneficiaries of the system, and outsiders, left on the sidelines of the distribution of benefits. This explains why outsiders fail to channel their discontent into effective electoral punishment, and thereby how corruption undermines democratic accountability.
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| 5. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Will Women Executives Reduce Corruption? Marginalization and Network Inclusion
- 2021
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 54:7, s. 1292-1322
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While recent studies find a strong association between the share of women in elected office and lower levels of corruption, we know less about if women in executive office cause reductions in corruption levels, and if such effects last over time. This study suggests that women mayors reduce corruption levels, but that the beneficial effect may be weakened over time. Using both regression discontinuity and first difference designs with newly collected data on French municipal elections combined with corruption risk data on close to all municipal contracts awarded between 2005 and 2016, we show that women mayors reduce corruption risks. However, newly elected women mayors drive the results, while gender differences are negligible in municipalities where women mayors are re elected. Our results can be interpreted as providing support for marginalization theories, but also suggest that the women that adapt to corrupt networks survive in office.
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| 6. |
- Bolkvadze, Ketevan
(författare)
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To Reform or to Retain? Politicians’ Incentives to Clean Up Corrupt Courts in Hybrid Regimes
- 2020
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 53:3-4, s. 500-530
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article offers a novel take on the problem of judicial independence in nondemocracies. Some scholars hold that political fragmentation leads to more judicial independence; others argue that it leads to less independence in nondemocracies. These studies have focused on judicial politicization and neglected judicial corruption. Using a process-tracing controlled comparison of reforms in Georgia and Moldova, I investigate the impact of political fragmentation on judicial corruption. I argue that politicians in less fragmented regimes, as in Georgia, have stronger incentives to reform corrupt courts, and utilize anticorruption measures for establishing long-term political control. In more fragmented regimes, as in Moldova, politicians have stronger incentives to resist anticorruption measures and instead utilize corrupt courts for short-term private gains. These findings suggest that political fragmentation in hybrid regimes can propel politicians to delegate neither more, nor less power to courts, but instead to use distinct avenues, or “entry-points,” to influence judicial outcomes.
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| 7. |
- Brambor, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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The Lay of the Land: Information Capacity and the Modern State
- 2020
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 1552-3829 .- 0010-4140. ; 53:2, s. 175-213
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents new evidence on the efforts of states to collect and process information about themselves, their territories, and their populations. We compile data on five institutions and policies: the regular implementation of a reliable census, the regular release of statistical yearbooks, the introduction of civil and population registers, and the establishment of a government agency tasked with processing statistical information. Using item response theory methods, we generate an index of “information capacity” for 85 states from 1789 to the present. We then ask how political regime changes have influenced the development of information capacity over time. In contrast with the literature on democracy and fiscal capacity, we find that suffrage expansions are associated with higher information capacity, but increases in the level of political competition are not. These findings demonstrate the value of our new measure, because they suggest that different elements of state capacity are shaped by different historical processes.
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| 8. |
- Broms, Rasmus, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Political competition and public procurement outcomes
- 2019
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 52:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article asks if low political competition is associated with more restricted public procurement processes. Using unique Swedish municipal data from 2009 to 2015, it demonstrates that when one party dominates local politics, noncompetitive outcomes from public procurement processes are more common. What is most striking is that the risk of receiving only one bid, on what is intended to be an open and competitive tender, considerably increases with long-standing one-party rule. The article contributes to a significant body of work on the detrimental effects of low political competition, and the results are particularly interesting from a comparative perspective because Sweden—an old democracy with a meritocratic bureaucracy, characterized by low levels of corruption and clientelism—is a highly unlikely case in which to find such tendencies.
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| 9. |
- Brännlund, Anton
(författare)
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Patrimony at risk : Market risk and right-wing voting
- 2022
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : Sage Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 55:11, s. 1877-1909
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current literature suggest that financial assets push investors to votefor conservative parties given that right-wing policies is said to generate higher returns. Another popular argument is that wealth reduces demand for welfare spendinggiven that private assets can be used as a substitute for social benefits. What I askin this study is if asset owners always support right-wing parties and a trimmed welfare state. I argue that owners of financial assets become less tempted by free-marketpolicy offerings when there is uncertainty in financial markets. The dot-com bubble,the financial crisis, and most recently the massive impact on financial markets of thecoronavirus show that savings can evaporate in a matter of days. I show that the support for right-wing parties decreases in areas with much financial assets under suchconditions.
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| 10. |
- Butler, Daniel M., et al.
(författare)
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Party Representatives’ Adaptation to Election Results. Dyadic Responsiveness Revisited
- 2017
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Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 50:14, s. 1973-1997
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Politicians’ dual responsibilities to respect their party and also be responsive to their constituents is surprisingly lacking in studies of representation. How do politicians—especially those who function in strong-party systems—individually respond to their constituents’ preferences? We make use of an original, large-scale survey of politicians and the recent success of the Sweden Democrats in the elections in Sweden to show that important adaptation takes place within the party structure. Individual politicians are responsive to signals about voters’ preferences, and they act on these signals by internally lobbying their party leaders to change the party’s positions in the direction of their constituents’ preferences. These results provide a rationale for why niche parties invest in elections even if they are unlikely to enter government: Their electoral successes can cause change in other parties. The results also add a new angle to the discussion of how anti-immigration parties affect mainstream parties, a hotly debated issue in many advanced democracies.
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