Accountability in Swedish Political Parties? Survey evidence of misconduct and whistleblowing

• What is the nature of misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties? While there is a large and established literature on the causes and consequences of whistleblowing in many organizational settings, we are yet to understand how these processes work in political parties: organisations that operate at the heart of democracy and are distinctive in their cultural and hierarchical structures. This paper develops expectations for misconduct and whistleblowing in parties from a substantial body of research on whistleblowing from the field of business ethics and supplements this with insights from organizational theory. We then carry out a first attempt to empirically gauge the nature of misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties using a survey of over 1,165 Swedish politicians from the national, regional, and local levels – the Politikerpanel – following the formation of the Swedish government in 2022. The results show that reported misconduct in political parties tends to refer to either serious structural organisational problems, or instances of inappropriate personal conduct. Misconduct is overwhelmingly dealt with internally within parties, through both formal and informal means. However, some types of misconduct – specifically structural issues – are more likely to be reported than others that are potentially more politically costly. These findings give new insight into how frequent misconduct and wrongdoing is in political parties, what the nature of these misconducts are, and what mechanisms are used for addressing them by witnesses and authorities.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Whistleblowing political parties accountability misconduct

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)