| 1. |
- Alexander, Amy C, et al.
(författare)
-
Are women more likely tothrow therascals out? The mobilizing effect ofsocial service spending onfemale voters
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Public Choice. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0048-5829 .- 1573-7101. ; 184, s. 235-261
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study focuses on gender differences in voter reactions to a corruption scandal in one’s preferred party. We analyze, in a framework of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’, whether women differ from men in terms of turnout (exit), and given that they vote, whether they prefer a clean alternative party (voice) or whether they continue to vote for their preferred party (loyalty) involved in a corruption scandal. We employ sequential logit models using data from the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey from 2017, which contains roughly 77,000 respondents from 21 EU countries and 185 regions. We find that women generally are less tolerant of corruption, but that the effect is highly conditional. In areas where social service spending is more widespread, we find that female respondents are more likely to vote for an alternative party. Yet the odds of exit increase among women when social service spending is lower.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Alexander, Amy C, et al.
(författare)
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Female representation and electoral clientelism: New insights from South African municipal electionss
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Electoral Studies. - : Elsevier BV. - 0261-3794. ; 82
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do citizens experience less electoral clientelism in polities with more elected female representatives? The current literature is remarkably silent on the role of gender and female political representation for electoral clientelism. Due to gender differences in issue priorities, targeted constituent groups, networks and resources, we argue that voters experience less clientelism in municipalities with a higher proportion of female politicians because either female politicians are likely to engage less in clientelism or women are less likely to be viable candidates in more clientelist settings. Through either mechanism, we expect all voters - and female voters in particular - to experience less exposure to clientelism in municipalities with higher female representation. We examine this idea using survey data from the 2016 municipal elections in South Africa - a country with high levels of female representation in politics but increasing problems of corruption and patronage in the political system. Our findings are consistent with the argument that municipalities with more elected female councilors have considerably lower rates of electoral clientelism and that this mostly affects whether female voters are targeted by clientelist distribution. These findings shed new light on how women's representation in elected political office shapes the incidence and use of clientelist distribution during elections.
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| 4. |
- Alexander, Amy C, et al.
(författare)
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For every action a reaction? The polarizing effects of women's rights and refugee immigration: A survey experiment in 27 EU member states
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Journal of Political Research. - 0304-4130.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Building on research on cultural threat-induced polarization, we investigate the effect of the individual-level salience of cultural threats on polarization between social liberals and conservatives. In a unique survey experiment conducted with 129,000 respondents nested in 208 regions in 27 European Union (EU) member states,we manipulate the presence of two cultural threats, women’s rights, and refugee immigration, to test their polarizingeffects on social liberals’ and social conservatives’ support for traditional values. We find that priming the threatof refugee immigration polarizes conservatives and liberals equally. Yet, introducing the salience of women’srights leads to lower preferences for traditional values, particularly among more liberal respondents. Our findings demonstrate: 1) the study of backlash should distinguish individuals by their predisposition to backlash, rather than studying the population as a whole; and 2) social conservatives’ backlash should be studied conjointly with social liberals’ counter-reactions to backlash. Future research may investigate why different cultural threats provoke different reactions.
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| 5. |
- Annoni, P., et al.
(författare)
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Measurement Assessment in Cross-Country Comparative Analysis: Rasch Modelling on a Measure of Institutional Quality
- 2019
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Ingår i: Social Indicators Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0303-8300 .- 1573-0921. ; 141:1, s. 31-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Quality of Government Index (EQI) is the only measure of institutional quality available at the regional level in the European Union. The index, published in 2010 and again in 2013, is based on an ad-hoc survey that measures three different broad aspects of governance within countries: corruption, impartiality and quality. The EQI is assessed in this paper for the first time by means of Rasch modelling, a popular Item Response Theory method. It is demonstrated that Rasch modelling allows for a wide scope of validity and consistency tests of surveys of this kind. The analysis helped strengthening the survey, and consequently the index, by highlighting areas for improvement that can be applied to future rounds of the EQI survey. For instance, it allowed for testing the questions equivalence across different countries and respondents' socio-demographic background, the validity and fit of each question's measurement scale and the internal consistency of the EQI domains of corruption, impartiality and quality. Several of the shortcomings that were highlighted by the Rasch analysis will be addressed in the upcoming round of data collection for the third edition of the EQI. The analysis is then expected to have a positive impact on improving the first measure of quality of government in the European Union regions.
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| 6. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
All hands on deck’ or separate lifeboats? Public support for European economic solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Journal of European Public Policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1350-1763 .- 1466-4429. ; 30:6
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What are the sources of public support for international aid in times of crises? This paper investigates the determinants of public support for the EU Covid-19 aid package (‘NextGenerationEU’, NGEU), the largest aid package in EU history. Using what is to the best of our knowledge the first EU-wide study of public opinion on the Covid-19 rescue package, we first establish that public support for within-EU redistribution is influenced by long-standing factors such as ideology and citizen identities, corroborating previous literature. Next, our vignette survey experiment shows that short-term shifts in support for the rescue package are driven mostly by elite endorsement cues rather than information about the precise terms of aid or amount. We also find that the role of elite endorsement cues varies across different subsets of the population depending on their level of political sophistication, national level attachment and country context. Conversely, the effects of policy details about the aid package are more mixed. Thus, in the face of multidimensional decision-making in times of crises, national institutions are a key catalyst of moving short-term support for policies of international solidarity. We discuss how our findings have implications for democratic governance and accountability in the EU.
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| 7. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Do Men and Women Perceive Corruption Differently? Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Politics and Governance. - : Cogitatio. - 2183-2463. ; 8:2, s. 92-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do men and women perceive corruption differently? While evidence suggest that there is a strong link between gender and corruption, and that gender differences can at least partly be derived from men and women having different attitudes towards corruption, most studies to date focus on gender differences in perceptions of the scale or severity of the corruption in general, rather than its different forms. However, we argue that factors such as role socialization, social status and life experiences may make men and women perceive different kinds of corruption. Drawing on the distinction between ‘need’ and ‘greed’ corruption, we suggest that women are more likely than men to perceive that corruption is driven by need rather than greed. In particular, women may be more likely to be exposed to need corruption because of their greater care taking responsibilities both in the professional and private sphere, and, much in line with marginalization theory, have easier access to forms of corruption that are less dependent upon embeddedness in collusive networks. Using unique survey data, we show that women and men indeed differ in their perceptions of need vs. greed, and that women perceive more need corruption, while men perceive more greed corruption. This suggests that perceptions of different forms of corruption are indeed gendered and we discuss the implication of this for anti-corruption policy.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Does Corruption Cause Aid Fatigue? Public Opinion and the Aid-Corruption Paradox
- 2013
-
Ingår i: International Studies Quarterly. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0020-8833 .- 1468-2478. ; 57:3, s. 568-579
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Does perceived corruption in recipient countries reduce support for foreign aid in donor countries? This under-explored yet salient question is examined using the 2009 Eurobarometer survey for the 27 EU countries. We suggest that perceived corruption can cause aid fatigue but that this relationship is highly contextualized. The results show that perceptions about corruption in developing countries reduce overall support for aid among respondents in donor countries. However, this effect is mitigated by country and contextual-level effects and different understandings of what we call the "aid-corruption paradox," namely that the need for foreign aid is often the greatest in corrupt environments. Three different dynamics of the aid-corruption paradox influence support for aid: moral, pragmatic, and strategic understandings. In EU-15 countries, the effect of perceived corruption in recipient states on aid fatigue can be substantially altered if aid is motivated by moral reasons for helping poor countries or if the purpose of aid is understood to improve governance. In new member states (NMS-12), the effect is reduced if respondents believe that the result of aid can serve national interests. The results provide new insights into the public opinion/development policy nexus, which suggest a number of salient policy recommendations and future areas for research.
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| 10. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Does Corruption Lead to Lower Subnational Credit Ratings? Fiscal Dependence, Market Reputation, and the Cost of Debt
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Business and Politics. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1369-5258 .- 1469-3569. ; 23:3, s. 364-382
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While studies show a consistent negative relationship between the level of corruption and range indicators of national-level economic performance, including sovereign credit ratings, we know less about the relationship between corruption and subnational credit ratings. This study suggests that federal transfers allow states with higher levels of corruption to retain good credit ratings, despite the negative economic implications of corruption more broadly, which also allows them to continue to borrow at low costs. Using data on corruption conviction in US states and credit ratings between 2001 and 2015, we show that corruption does not directly reduce credit ratings on average. We find, however, heterogeneous effects, in that there is a negative effect of corruption on credit ratings only in states that have a comparatively low level of fiscal dependence on federal transfers. This suggest that while less dependent states are punished by international assessors when seen as more corrupt, corruption does not affect the ratings of states with higher levels of fiscal dependence on federal revenue.
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| 11. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Europe around the corner? How border proximity and quality of government explains European identity
- 2023
-
Ingår i: European Union Politics. - 1465-1165 .- 1741-2757. ; 25:2, s. 376-395
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do citizens that live close to the border of another European country feel more European? We suggest that border proximity affects European identity formation, but that the positive effect of border proximity is confined largely to areas where citizens live close to regions with better quality of government and lower levels of corruption. Using our newly collected individual level and post-coded data from the most recent wave of the European Quality of Government survey, covering over 129,000 respondents in all 27 European Union member countries, we show that citizens that live close to the border of another country express a stronger European identity, all things being equal. Yet the effect is driven largely by citizens that live adjacent to regions with relatively higher/lower quality of government compared to their own region. Our study thereby contributes to a closer understanding of where and why citizens become attached to Europe, and if and how benchmarking institutional performance and quality of government affect citizens’ willingness to belong to, and identify with, Europe.
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| 12. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Exclusion or interests? Why females in elected office reduce petty and grand corruption
- 2019
-
Ingår i: European Journal of Political Research. - : Wiley. - 0304-4130 .- 1475-6765. ; 58:4, s. 1043-1065
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Disappointed by the numerous failures of anticorruption reforms, international organisations, scholars and policy makers increasingly place their hopes on measures aimed at enhancing gender equality and in particular increasing the inclusion of female representatives in elected assemblies. Yet most studies to date focus on aggregate measures of corruption and fail to explain why the correlation between women's representation and levels of corruption occurs. Using newly collected regional-level, non-perception-based measures of corruption, this study distinguishes between different forms of corruption and shows that the inclusion of women in local councils is strongly negatively associated with the prevalence of both petty and grand forms of corruption. However, the reduction in corruption is primarily experienced among women. This suggests that female representatives seek to further two separate political agendas once they attain public office: the improvement of public service delivery in sectors that tend to primarily benefit women; and the breakup of male-dominated collusive networks.
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| 13. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
In God we Trust? Identity, Institutions and International Solidarity in Europe
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Common Market Studies. - : Wiley. - 0021-9886 .- 1468-5965. ; 58:5, s. 1124-1143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several recent studies show that citizens' identification with Europe is one of the most important determinants of support for EU integration, that may also hold the key to greater economic solidarity and support for international redistribution. This article proposes a multidimensional conception of European identity, and that citizens' support for redistribution within the EU is highly contingent not only on the level of identification with Europe but also on the nature of their feeling of belonging to the community. In particular, we suggest that citizens who feel European, based on civic ties, are more likely to support redistribution than those who instead identify with Europe on the basis of religion and in particular, Christianity. Using unique and newly collected regional‐level data, we found support for these claims. Thus, not only if, or how much, but also why citizens identify with Europe matters for the level of social solidarity across borders.
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| 14. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
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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| 15. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
‘It's the quality of government stupid’ explaining patterns in support for far right in the 2022 French presidential election
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Electoral Studies. - 0261-3794. ; 84
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the most important transformations of European politics in recent decades is the rapid expansion of the share of population that vote for parties characterized as populist radical right (PRR) parties. This research note suggests that declining quality of government increases support for populist radical right parties. Using the latest rounds of the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey data that sampled at the NUTS 2 regional level in France, and exploiting the fact that the French, presidential elections contained the same candidates (Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen) in 2017 and 2022, we show that regions increase their vote share for Le Pen where the quality of government decreases. We also show that this relationship holds at the individual level. Thus, supplying quality, impartial and fair public services seem to stifle demand for nativism, ethnic favoritism and authoritarianism and suppress support for the PRR party agenda.
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| 16. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Stand together or alone? Public support for European economic solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic
- 2021
-
Ingår i: European Societies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1461-6696 .- 1469-8307. ; 23:4, s. 533-561
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In response to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union has launched one of the largest assistance packages in EU history, where all 27 EU member states are asked to jointly borrow 500 billion Euros to finance grants to areas hardest hit by the crises. Despite the unprecedented size of this package, we know less about citizens' support for such a common EU response to the crises. Using unique data from a representative survey in Germany, Italy and Romania, this study shows that while average levels of public support for cross-border financial assistance varies across countries, individual-level determinants are generally unrelated to perceptions of the crises as such. Instead, slow moving factors unrelated to the crises, including general value orientation, cosmopolitanism and trust determine expressions of cross-border social solidarity. We discuss implications for understanding public responses to major crises and long-term support for a common EU response.
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
What do Citizens think about Redistribution and Aid within the EU? Description and Highlights of a Pan European Citizen Survey on Public Support for Cohesion Policy
- 2018
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper introduces the main findings and methodology of a new large-scale pan European survey capturing citizens’ support for EUs efforts to reduce inequality between richer and poorer regions in Europe, cohesion policy. Despite that cohesion policy currently constitutes the 2nd largest budget item of the European Union, we know surprisingly little on about the level of public support for such redistribution. This major data collection effort was aimed at enhancing our understanding of citizen knowledge, attitudes and experience with Cohesion policy, along with potential determinants –both original to the project and others drawn from the literature –that are associated with support (or lack thereof) for the policy. In all, 17,147 interviews were carried out in 15 EU member states, which represent 85% of the total EU28 population. The results contribute towards a better understanding of some of the factors that may ultimately determine the level of redistribution and inequality in Europe, such as identification with Europe, utilitarian (self-interest) factors, political party support, and perceptions of the quality of government and corruption at regional, country, and EU level.
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| 19. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Why support International redistribution? Corruption and public support for aid in the eurozone
- 2018
-
Ingår i: European Union Politics. - : SAGE Publications. - 1465-1165 .- 1741-2757. ; 19:2, s. 233-254
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What factors explain public support for international redistribution? While the European Union has sent billions of taxpayers’ money to over indebted euro countries in an attempt to avoid an economic collapse, these transfers have encountered fierce resistance among both donor and recipient constituents. However, we know surpris- ingly little about why citizens support or oppose redistribution within the EU. This paper suggests that domestic levels of corruption and institutional quality may be one of the most important explanations for the great variation in public support for financial assistance, bailouts and aid. Using recent European Elections Survey data merged with data on regional level quality of government, we show that the effects of institutional quality are consistently stronger than macro-economic factors, including economic development, inequality or levels of public debt. We find strong evidence that citizens in low corrupt contexts are more likely to support financial assistance to fellow member states. The results have implications for future challenges in securing public support for EU economic integration as well as for our understanding of how and why corruption undermines society’s collective action capacity.
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| 20. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Will Women Executives Reduce Corruption? Marginalization and Network Inclusion
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Comparative Political Studies. - : SAGE Publications. - 0010-4140 .- 1552-3829. ; 54:7, s. 1292-1322
-
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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| 21. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(författare)
-
Will Women’s Representation Reduce Bribery? Trends in Corruption and Public Service Delivery Across European Regions
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Political Behavior. - 0190-9320. ; , s. 1-24
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While a growing body of work suggests that women representatives are less likely to be involved in corruption scandals, we know less about if changes in representation patterns also have implications for citizens’ first-hand experiences with corruption in public service delivery. This study suggests that women elected representatives reduce street level bribery, in particular when the share of women increases in contexts where relatively few women are elected or when the absolute increase in women’s representation is relatively large. Using newly collected data on the share of women in 128 regional level parliaments in 10 European countries and four rounds of the European Quality of Government Index (EQI) survey (2010–2021), our twoway fixed effects models show that on average, the proportion of women in regional parliaments is strongly associated with citizens’ self-reported experiences of bribery across all countries and years. Furthermore, our difference-in-difference design shows that the level of bribery in public service provision dropped more sharply in regions that experienced a greater absolute or greater marginal increase in women’s representation. Our results may be understood in light of women candidates placing priority on well-functioning and low corrupt public service provision and the important signals of inclusiveness, non-discrimination and decreased tolerance towards corruption that women’s representation conveys to civil servants.
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| 22. |
- Bågenholm, Andreas, 1969, et al.
(författare)
-
Accountable or Untouchable? Electoral accountability in Romanian local elections
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Electoral Studies. - : Elsevier BV. - 0261-3794. ; 66
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While retrospective models of voting posit that voters should “vote the rascals out”, a wave of recent research has found that this is rarely the case. We investigate this question in a context in which many sitting politicians have recently been indicted on corruption charges – the municipal level in Romania, a surprisingly under-researched case in this sub-field. Romania provides a good case for electoral accountability. Not only do Romanians deeply detest corruption, the party system also contains many parties that would make it easy for voters to switch from a corrupt to a cleaner alternative. We collected an original data register of electoral and socio-political data on roughly 3200 localities together with all cases of corruption charges published by the Romanian anti-corruption agency, the Direcţia Naţională Anticorupţie (DNA), accounting for magnitude and timing of the scandal as well as the judicial outcome for the indicted mayor. In all, we find that 81 sitting mayors elected in 2012 were charged with corruption prior to the 2016 election. We test the electoral impact of corruption on the incumbent mayors on four outcomes indicating electoral accountability commonly used in the literature – retirement, vote share compared to the previous election, voter turnout, and reelection using difference and difference and a pairwise matching designs, inter alia. The results show that Romanians do punish their corrupt incumbent mayors to a quite high extent compared to the clean mayors. However, due to the large vote margins, the punishment is not severe enough to make them lose more often than similar “clean‟ mayors, although they tend to not run for re-election at much higher rates. Turnout is unaffected by corruption at the municipal level. In line with previous results, we thus find a certain amount of electoral accountability, but not to the extent that the ‘rascals are thrown out’.
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| 23. |
- Bågenholm, Andreas, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Anti-Corruption Parties and Good Government
- 2015
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Ingår i: Elites, Institutions and the Quality of Government (eds. Carl Dahlström & Lena Wängnerud). - Basingstoke : Palgrave McMillan. - 9781137556271
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 24. |
- Bågenholm, Andreas, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Do Politics in Europe Benefit from Politicising Corruption?
- 2014
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Ingår i: West European Politics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0140-2382 .- 1743-9655. ; 37:5, s. 903-931
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, two unexplored trends in European electoral politics are highlighted. Using newly collected data the article tracks the politicisation of corruption in electoral campaigns from 1981 to 2011, an electoral strategy that has been increasing over time in most European countries. It then empirically tests two aspects of this campaign strategy. First, what are the factors that are systematically associated with a party’s decision to politicise corruption? Second, what are the electoral effects in terms of relative vote share for parties that politicise corruption? Using an original data-set that employs multi-level data (parties nested in countries) the results demonstrate first that politicisation of corruption occurs systematically more often among established parties from the main opposition, new parties and parties on the political right, and occurs as a function of country-level corruption, district magnitude and public party financing. Second, it is found that the main opposition and new parties that use such a campaign strategy make significant electoral gains relative to the previous election compared to parties that do not politicise corruption. Yet gains are offset in low-corruption countries. The findings demonstrate salient implications for research on party systems, corruption studies and democratic legitimacy, among other areas of investigation.
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| 25. |
- Bågenholm, Andreas, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Explaining the Emergence and Success of Parties Politicizing Corruption in Electoral Politics in Europe
- 2013
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Ingår i: presented at the MPSA 71st Annual Conference in Chicago April 11-14, 2013.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper, we highlight two unexplored trends in European electoral politics. One, using newly collected data by the authors, we track the politicization of corruption in electoral campaigns from 1981 to 2011, an electoral strategy which has been increasing over time. Two, we then empirically test the electoral success of parties that politicize corruption using several factors from the literature on new party emergence. The results demonstrate that the politicization of corruption by new as well as established parties, occurs as a function of country level corruption, several electoral institutions, such as district magnitude and public party financing, and macro-economic factors such as the unemployment rate.
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| 26. |
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| 27. |
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| 28. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Careers, connections and corruption risks: Investigating the Impact of Bureaucratic Meritocracy on Public Procurement Processes
- 2017
-
Ingår i: The Journal of Politics. - : University of Chicago Press. - 1468-2508 .- 0022-3816. ; 79:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Why do officials in some countries favor entrenched contractors, while others assign public contracts more impartially? This article emphasizes the important interplay between politics and bureaucracy. It suggests that corruption risks are lower when bureaucrats’ careers do not depend on political connections but on their peers. We test this hypothesis with a novel measure of career incentives in the public sector—using a survey of more than 18,000 public sector employees in 212 European regions—and a new objective corruption risk measure including over 1.4 million procurement contracts. Both show a remarkable subnational variation across Europe. The study finds that corruption risks are indeed significantly lower where bureaucrats’ career incentives exclusively follow professional criteria. In substantial terms, moving EU regions so that bureaucrats’ merit and effort would matter as much as in, for example, Baden-Wüttemberg (90th percentile) could lead to a 13–20 billion Euro savings per year.
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| 29. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
-
Change and Continuity in Quality of Government: Trends in subnational quality of government in EU member states : Cambio y Continuidad en la Calidad del Gobierno: Tendencias en los gobiernos subnacionales calidad del gobierno en los estados miembros de la UE
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Investigaciones Regionales – Journal of Regional Research. - : Asociacion Espanola de Ciencia Regional. - 1695-7253 .- 2340-2717. ; :53, s. 5-23
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite massive investments, studies suggest that anti-corruption efforts often times fail and that countries and regions with historically deficient quality of government tend to be stuck in a vicious cycle of high levels of corruption and inadequate public service delivery. However, this study suggests that despite the stickiness of subnational quality of government, regional quality of government does shift over time. Using the 2021 European Quality of Government Index (EQI), and comparing the results to previous rounds of this survey, we show that there has indeed been noticeable shifts in the regional level of Quality of Government both within countries and across time. Overall, we find a slight increase in the perceived quality of government of European regions compared with 2017. However, some regions have evaded the positive trend, most notably in Poland and Hungary, whose response to the pandemic – probably not coincidentally – has involved important infringements of democratic rights and institutions. These changes in Quality of government call for a close mapping of the trends within countries and across regions and a focus on their determinants. To this end, the paper also serves as an introduction to the use of 2021 European Quality of Government (EQI) index, which is the most comprehensive survey to date to measure perceptions of subnational quality of government with a total of 129,000 respondents in 208 NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 regions and all EU 27-member state countries.
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| 30. |
- Charron, Nicholas
(författare)
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“Déjà vu All Over Again: A Post-Cold War Empirical Test of Huntington’s Civilizational Theory”
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Cooperation and Conflict. - 0010-8367. ; 45:1, s. 107-127
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many in the media have depicted conflicts between the Western and Muslim world as a “Clash of Civilizations”, which have revived many of the questions surrounding the value of Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory (CoC). Previous empirical tests have analyzed his theory using low-level conflict at the interstate level or violent conflict at the sub-national level. The former have demonstrated little to no empirical support for his theory, while the results in the later group are mixed. This analysis makes significant improvements from previous empirical studies. One, the empirical models test exclusively CoC in the post Cold War era from 1989-2001. Two, along with examining the civilizational determinants of MID’s, as prior studies have done, I also include models that focus exclusively on interstate wars, as Huntington frequently points out that a CoC between states will lead to violent political conflict. Finally, this study directly tests Huntington’s civilizational “fault lines” and Islamic “bloody border” hypotheses. I also include an extension and find that intra-civilizational conflict is relatively rare in the post-Cold War era. Contrary to earlier analyses, the data show strong empirical support for CoC, particularly when focusing on violent international conflict in the post-Cold War era.
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| 31. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Do Citizens Support EU Cohesion Policy? Measuring European support for redistribution within the EU and its correlates.
- 2020
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Ingår i: Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research. - 1695-7253 .- 2340-2717. ; :46, s. 11-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As the European Union enters into the next decade, its leaders seemingly strive towards more future integration rather than less, despite the recent setback of Brexit and the rise of anti-EU populist parties. In his state of the Union in 2018, Jean Claude Junker emphasized s ‘European solidarity’. One key policy ‘expression of solidary’ would be Cohesion Policy and the Structural Funds, which are “the only real, significant redistributive mechanism in the EU...” (Fratesi 2017). . Despite elite commentary, we know surprisingly little about what EU citizens think of the rationale behind the policy of Cohesion – e.g. economic redistribution within the EU. As part of the PERCEIVE Horizon2020 project, we launched a unique survey to investigate how citizens feel about economic integration within the Union, where 17,200 citizens were interviewed. In this paper, we show how we measure support for the policy, the results as well as a host of correlates. Our analysis shows the variation in citizens’ support for EU Cohesion policy between countries, how support varies between demographic groups, as well as the extent to which support is correlated with utilitarian and ideational factors as well as cue taking. Implications for future developments of this policy are discussed.
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| 32. |
- Charron, Nicholas
(författare)
-
Do corruption measures have a perception problem? Assessing the relationship between experiences and perceptions of corruption among citizens and experts
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Political Science Review. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 1755-7739 .- 1755-7747. ; 8:1, s. 147-171
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How well do corruption perception measures reflect actual levels of public sector corruption? Leading cross-national corruption perception measures have come under much theoretical and empirical scrutiny in recent years, with serious implications for the validity and reliability of the data in this ever growing sub-field. Critics argue that perceptions - in particular those of outside experts - do not reflect actual corruption in that they are far too noisy' or simply biased by external factors such as economic performance. Moreover, a number of recent empirical studies, focused on developing areas, have put forth evidence that outside expert assessments of corruption correspond little, if at all, with the experiences and views of actual citizens, and that such a lack of correspondence demonstrates pessimism for existing perception measures. This study offers a systematic analysis of the empirical strength of corruption perception measures in a previously unexplored area in this debate - Europe. Using new survey data collected by the author based on 85,000 European respondents in 24 countries, this issue is analyzed directly, addressing several contemporary critiques of the data. First, perceptions of citizens with, and without, personal corruption experience are compared at both the national and sub-national level in Europe. Second, external factors are checked, which might bias the extent to which citizens perceive corruption relative to how much actual corruption exists in countries and regions. Finally, expert perception indicators and citizen perceptions and experiences are compared. In summary, strong counter-evidence is found to the prevailing pessimistic claims in the literature - the consistency between actual reported corruption, as well as citizen and expert perceptions of corruption, is remarkably high and such perceptions are swayed little by outside noise'. I conclude that, although existing corruption measures certainly have their share of problems, concerns regarding the validity and bias of perceptions have, perhaps, been overstated.
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| 33. |
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| 34. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Does education lead to higher generalized trust? The importance of quality of government
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Journal of Educational Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 0738-0593. ; 50, s. 59-73
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Generalized trust has become a prominent concept at the nexus of several disciplines, and the wide differences in trust between different societies continue to puzzle the social sciences. In this study, we explore the effects of micro and macro level factors in explaining an individual's propensity to ‘trust others'. We hypothesize that higher levels of education will lead to higher social trust in individuals, given that the context (country or regions within countries) in which they reside has a sufficiently impartial and non-corrupt institutional setting. However, the positive effect of education on trust among individuals is expected to be negligible in contexts with greater levels of corruption and favoritism toward certain people are more inclined to view the system as ‘rigged' as they become more educated. This multi-level interaction effect is tested using original survey data of 85,000 individuals in 24 European countries. Using hierarchical modelling, we find strong support for our hypothesis. This effect is robust to a number of specifications, and even holds for regional variation of institutional quality (QoG) within countries – with the strongest effects being higher education – yet the country effects of QoG are strongest.
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| 35. |
- Charron, Nicholas
(författare)
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Explaining the allocation of regional Structural Funds: The conditional effect of governance and self-rule
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Union Politics. - : SAGE Publications. - 1465-1165 .- 1741-2757. ; 17:4, s. 638-659
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What regional factors can explain the heterogeneity in Structural Funds distribution to European Union regions? Past studies have shown that aside from the level of economic development and rates of unemployment, other political, and economic factors systematically explain why certain European Union regions receive greater funding than others, in particular where there is room for bargaining. In this article, a novel theory is posited which argues that the determination of Structural Funds is based on an interaction between a region's formal institutions (the level of a regional autonomy) and informal institutions (its level of quality of government). In cases of low regional autonomy, member states and European Union level actors prefer to allocate greater levels of Funds to regions with lower quality of government in order to increase cohesion. Yet in cases of high regional autonomy, risks associated with absorption failure in lower capacity regions lead states to strategically allocate greater levels of transfers to regions with higher quality of government. The theory is tested on data for 171 European Union regions for the 2007-2013 budget period. The results show robust empirical support for the theoretical claims.
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| 36. |
- Charron, Nicholas
(författare)
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Exploring the Impact of Foreign Aid on Corruption – Has the ‘Anti-Corruption’ Movement Been Effective?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Developing Economies. - : Wiley. - 0012-1533. ; 49:1, s. 66-88
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- : Though many studies have referred to an ‘anti-corruption movement’ beginning in the 1990’s by major international organizations, none has empirically tested its effectiveness on corruption. The data show that from 1997 on, the impact of multilateral aid is strongly and robustly associated with lower corruption levels, while bilateral aid is shown to be an insignificant determinant. An increase in any ODA pre-1997 is associated with higher levels of corruption or has no impact at all. Using panel data from 1986-2006, this study reveals a more nuanced relationship between ODA and corruption than in previous studies and demonstrates that when disaggregating the time periods, there are sensitive temporal effects of ODA’s effect on corruption overlooked by earlier studies, and provides initial evidence of the effectiveness of the international organization (IO), anti-corruption movement in the developing world.
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| 37. |
- Charron, Nicholas
(författare)
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. ““Government Quality and Vertical Power Sharing in Fractionalized States”
- 2009
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Ingår i: Publius: The Journal of Federalism.. ; 39:4, s. 585-605
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that ethno-linguistic diversity has a negative relationship with quality of government (QoG). In response to this challenge, states have two broad options with respect to vertical power-sharing. One, they can attempt to integrate various factions by adopting a unitary, centralized constitution. Two, they can accommodate minority groups with ethno-federalism, giving them a degree of regional autonomy. Using numerous QoG indicators in a cross-sectional regression from 1995 to 2004, the data show that ethno-federalism outperforms its integrationist rival for each QoG measure employed in the analysis. While numerous other empirical studies have examined the impact of ethno-federal institutions on either civil conflict or separatism, this is the first to assess the effects of this institution on government quality relative to integrationist states.
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| 38. |
- Charron, Nicholas
(författare)
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Impartiality, friendship-networks and voting behavior: Evidence from voting patterns in the Eurovision Song Contest
- 2013
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Ingår i: Social Networks. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-8733. ; 35:3, s. 484-497
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What is the extent to which a country's political institutions impact aggregate voting behavior in a comparative perspective? More specifically, are citizens in some countries more inclined vote on the basis of 'quality' or 'merit' over 'friendship' or 'loyalty', and if so, why? This paper seeks to address how the extent to which a country's political institutions are impartial (treats all citizens equally, free from corruption, strong rule of law) impact aggregate citizen behavior. When political institutions are more (less) impartial, success in society is more often on the basis of merit (patrimonial ties). This test cases is voting in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) from 1975 to 2012 among pairs and blocs of 'voting friends'. The theory elucidates that given that certain pairs or blocs exhibit systematic voting bias for one another over time, the bias will be considerably less among impartial states than those with highly partial institutions. Using several measures of 'friendship', I find strong empirical evidence for this claim, even when controlling for myriad alternative factors and taking into account various voting regimes. The analysis gives us new insights on how political institutions condition aggregate citizen behavior in general and that although there is much bias in ESC voting, not all bias is equal among friend-countries. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 39. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Inclusive candidate selection and corruption: evidence from Spanish regions
- 2023
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Ingår i: West European Politics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0140-2382 .- 1743-9655. ; 46:7, s. 1396-1423
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High corruption perceptions among voters have been shown to have dire consequences for political participation, trust in institutions and ability to solve collective action problems. Research on corruption focussed on macro- and micro-level explanations to explain persistent corruption in developed countries. This article adds a new meso-level variable to the picture: party primaries. While until recently selection of candidates was the privilege of narrow party elites, many Western European parties have introduced primaries to select candidates for public offices. This study posits that this attempt at increasing intraparty democracy has negative consequences regarding corruption perceptions and suggests three mechanisms through which primaries increase corruption perceptions among supporters of parties that use them. First, primaries can be perceived as a means of 'window-dressing', second, primaries can suffer from vote buying, and third, candidates in primaries have incentives to campaign on anti-elitism to distinguish themselves from party elite candidates, increasing corruption salience. The theoretical argument is tested using a novel dataset on primaries in Spanish regions and corruption perceptions in a difference-in-difference design. The results support the hypothesis that primaries increase corruption perceptions among supporters of parties that use them and hint that this result is driven by the process of competitive primaries rather than a restriction of competition.
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| 40. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping the Regional Divide in Europe: A Measure for Assessing Quality of Government in 206 European Regions
- 2015
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Ingår i: Social Indicators Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0303-8300 .- 1573-0921. ; 122:2, s. 315-346
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Do aspects of quality of government, broadly defined, such as corruption, impartiality, and quality of public services, vary below the country level? The concept of quality of government (QoG) and various measures to assess it have become more ubiquitous in several social science disciplines. QoG is related with economic and social development, better environmental conditions, and better quality of life. Yet while governance indicators have proliferated in recent years, their focus remains almost universally on analysis at the country level. Moreover, the majority of indices rely on expert assessments, as opposed to the assessments of citizens, who are the on-the-ground consumers of public services. Building on a preliminary round of data collected in 2010, this study, for which data were collected in 2013, presents a novel and comprehensive index that captures the quality of governance for 206 regions in 24 European countries. The 'European Quality of Government Index', which will be published free for scholarly use, is built on the largest survey to date focusing on governance at the regional level; over 85,000 citizens were surveyed. The instrument proposed here builds on both perceptions and experiences of citizens in public service areas such as health care, education, and law enforcement. The paper presents final results of the survey, as well as a sensitivity analysis and checks for external and internal validity.
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| 41. |
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| 42. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
-
Measuring Meritocracy in the Public Sector in Europe: a New National and Sub-National Indicator
- 2016
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Ingår i: European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0928-1371 .- 1572-9869. ; 22:3, s. 499-523
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since the late nineteenth century, the presence of an independent and meritocratic bureaucracy has been posited as an advantage for effective bureaucratic behaviour and a means of limiting patrimonial networks and corruption, among other benefits. There is little consensus on how the features of an independent and meritocratic bureaucracy should be measured across countries, however, and broad empirical studies are therefore rare. What is more, the few such studies that exist have advanced measures which are constructed exclusively on expert surveys. Although these have indeed contributed to the knowledge in the field, the data on which they are built come with problems. This paper proposes a set of novel measures that complement existing measures and thus fill important gaps in this burgeoning literature. The measures we present are not based on expert assessments but on perceptions of public sector employees’ and citizens’. We create two measures—that can be combined into one—from a recent survey (2013) of over 85,000 citizens in 24 European countries. One is purely based on the assessments from public sector employees’ and the other is based on perceptions of citizens working outside the public sector. The paper also discusses the survey and explores the external validity of the measures provided here, showing correlations with alternative measures based on expert opinions, as well as variables from the literature that we would expect to correlate highly with a meritocratic bureaucracy.
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| 43. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring Quality of Government in EU Regions across Space and Time
- 2019
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Ingår i: Papers in Regional Science. - : Wiley. - 1056-8190 .- 1435-5957. ; 98:5, s. 1925-1953
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A wave of recent cross‐national research has pointed to the positive consequences for countries with high levels of ‘quality of government’ (QoG), broadly defined, such as corruption, impartiality, and quality of public services (Mauro 2004; Norris 2012; Holmberg et al 2009). Yet the question of how QoG varies at the sub‐national level is still widely overlooked, in particular with measures that are available over time. To address it, we present the third round of data from the regional ‘European Quality of Government Index’ (EQI) survey (Charron, Dijkstra and Lapuente 2014; Charron, Lapuente and Rothstein 2013), collected in 2017 and built upon the opinions of 78.000 respondents in 193 regions from 21 European countries. The data provides several contributions to the literature. First, while the majority of QoG‐type indices rely on expert assessments, the EQI relies on the assessments of citizens, who are the on‐the‐ground consumers of public services. Second, the data begins to show trends on QoG variation over time, as well as across European regions. Consequently, this data is the most comprehensive sub‐national data to date; mapping of QoG within and across EU countries over the past decade. Building on previous rounds of data collected in 2010 and 2013, the 2017 EQI, which is published free for scholarly use, builds on both perceptions and experiences of citizens in public service areas such as health care, education, and law enforcement. This paper presents the results of the latest survey, improved with respect to the previous ones, discussion of trends across space and over time, as well as interesting avenues for future research that we detect across European regions.
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| 44. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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No Law without a State
- 2010
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Ingår i: QoG Working Paper Series. ; :2010:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 45. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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No Law without a State
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Comparative Economics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0147-5967. ; 40:2, s. 176-193
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What explains cross-country differences in the quality of institutions, such as judicial independence and government regulations of economic life, and in desirable social and economic outcomes, such as a low degree of corruption and high degree of rule of law? In some of the most widely cited publications in the field of economics and political science, scholars have claimed that such cross-country variation is explained by a country’s legal origin (common law or civil law tradition). It is claimed that because of stronger legal protection for outside investors and less state intervention, common law countries have achieved higher levels of economy prosperity and social life than civil law countries. To a large extent, this hypothesis has been corroborated by much empirical evidence. This paper proposes an alternative interpretation of the cross-country differences observed. Building on scholarly studies of state formation developments, the basic proposition of this paper is that the state formation process affects the character of the state infrastructure to be either patrimonial or bureaucratic, which in turn affects institutions and social outcomes. We argue that this fundamental distinction of state formation precedes the legal origins of a country and thus offers superior explanatory power. This argument is tested empirically on a set of 31 OECD countries. It is shown that the state infrastructure is indeed more influential than the legal traditions on a set of institutional variables (formalism, judicial independence, regulation of entry and case law) as well as on a set of social outcomes (corruption, rule of law, and property rights).
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| 46. |
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| 47. |
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| 48. |
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| 49. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Regional Governance Matters: Quality of Government within European Union Member States
- 2014
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Ingår i: Regional studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0034-3404 .- 1360-0591. ; 48:1, s. 68-90
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Charron N., Dijkstra L. and Lapuente V. Regional governance matters: quality of government within European Union member states, Regional Studies. This study presents novel data (European QoG Index - EQI) on the 'quality of government' (QoG) - understood as low corruption, impartial public services and rule of law - for national and sub-national levels in twenty-seven European Union countries. The EQI shows notable within-country variations: while high-performing regions in Italy and Spain (for example, Bolzano, País Vasco) rank amongst the best European Union regions, others perform well below the European Union average. The index is highly correlated with sub-national levels of socio-economic development and levels of social trust, yet political decentralization is uncorrelated with greater within-country, or higher levels of overall, QoG. © 2013 © 2013 Regional Studies Association.
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| 50. |
- Charron, Nicholas, et al.
(författare)
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Sub-national Quality of Government in EU Member States: Presenting the 2021 European Quality of Government Index and its relationship with Covid-19 indicators
- 2021
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Ingår i: Quality of Government working paper series. - 1653-8919. ; 2021:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The 2021 European Quality of Government Index (the EQI) is the largest survey ever undertaken to measure perceptions of quality of government, collecting the opinions of over 129,000 respondents in a total of 208 NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 regions in all EU 27 member states. This paper highlights some of its main results and compares the results with previous rounds of the survey. The survey is not only unique in size, it is also allows for new insights into the intricate link between government institutions, health policy and crisis management, since it has been conducted in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. In a time of important challenges, we find an overall increase in the perceived quality of government of European regions. However, the geography of QoG is slowly shifting, with many regions in Eastern Europe now surpassing regions in Southern Europe. We also see a drop in most regions in Poland and Hungary, whose response to the pandemic has involved important infringement of democratic rights and institutions. Such drops cause concern for future crises management and beyond. We find that regional level corruption is closely linked to the extent to which citizens’ worry about the effects of the pandemic
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