Gender and corruption: The mediating power of institutional logics

Authors Name(s): Stensöta, Wängnerud, and Richard Svensson
Scholars have argued that recruiting more women to office is an effective way to curb corruption; however, the more precise mechanisms underlying why this may be the case have remained unclear. We use meso-level theories to elaborate on the relationship and suggest that institutional logics mediate the effect of gendered experiences on corruption. We make […] Read more

Cleaning Up La Paz

Authors Name(s): Paul Heywood and Nieves Zúñiga
The Democracy Lab and Legatum Institute commissioned a series of case studies, in collaboration with Foreign Policy, that examine specific interventions against corruption which have produced positive results. The aim is to tell a set of stories that illustrate how combating corruption works in practice, which may offer insight on some of the larger issues across the […] Read more

Careers, Connections and Corruption Risks in Europe

Authors Name(s): Nicholas Charron, Carl Dahlström, Mihály Fazekas, Victor Lapuente
Why do officials in some countries favor entrenched contractors while others assign public contracts more impartially? According to the research, such variation responds to differences in political institutions, economic development and historical preconditions. This paper instead emphasizes the interplay between politics and bureaucracy. It suggests that corruption risks are minimized when the two groups involved […] Read more

Institutions as Incentives for Civic Action: Bureaucratic Structures, Civil Society, and Disruptive Protests

Authors Name(s): Agnes Cornell and Marcia Grimes
Cornell, Agnes and Marcia Grimes (2015). “Institutions as Incentives for Civic Action: Bureaucratic Structures, Civil Society, and Disruptive Protests.” The Journal of Politics 77(3): 664-678. This paper examines the link between political control of government bureaucracies and citizens’ likelihood to stage disruptive protests. A public administration heavily controlled by politicians, and staffed to a large […] Read more

Indignation or Resignation: The Implications of Transparency for Societal Accountability

Authors Name(s): Monika Bauhr, Marcia Grimes
International organizations, policy experts, and nongovernmental organizations promote greater governmental transparency as a crucial reform to enhance accountability and curb corruption. Transparency is predicted to deter corruption in part by expanding the possibilities for public or societal accountability, that is, for citizens and citizen associations to monitor, scrutinize, and act to hold public office holders […] Read more

Do corruption measures have a perception problem? Assessing the relationship between experiences and perceptions of corruption among citizens and experts

Authors Name(s): Nicholas Charron
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 […] Read more

Voter, ideology, party system and corruption voting in European democracies

Authors Name(s): Andreas Bågenholm, Nicholas Charron
In recent decades, the harmful effects of corruption on a society have been empirically established and are now considered indisputable. It is associated with less economic development, greater inequality, poorer health outcomes and environmental conditions, less generalized trust and less happy populations (Mauro 1995; Holmberg and Rothstein 2011; Welsch 2004; Gupta et al. 2002). According to democratic theory, one […] Read more

Close but no Cigar: the measurement of corruption.

Authors Name(s): Paul M Heywood and Jonathan Rose
Abstract : The financial cost of corruption has recently been estimated at more than 5 per cent of global GDP. Yet, despite the widespread agreement that corruption is one of the most pressing policy challenges facing world leaders, it remains as widespread today, possibly even more so, as it was when concerted international attention began being […] Read more