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Politicizing Corruption
Andreas Bgenholm
2009 by Andreas Bgenholm. Power-point presented at the QoG Lunch Seminar 5 May, 2009
THE QUALITY OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTE
Department of Political ScienceUniversity of Gothenburg
QoG Lunch Seminar 2009-05-05
The electoral impact of anti-corruption
discourse in Europe 1983-2007
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Theoretical underpinnings
Parties strategic choices in times of
Increasing voter volatility Decreasing party identification
Decreasing importance of old cleavages
Increasing difficulties for voters todistinguish between parties
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Party responses
Reorganization (more centralization,professionalization)
Recruiting different types of candidates
Focus on new issues
Focus on mode, not substance of policy
making, e.g. competence, transparency,cleanness etc.
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ConceptsPoliticization
When politicians bringan issue to the voters
knowledge
Political corruption
Politicians takingadvantage of their
position in order towin financial favorspersonally, for friendsor relatives or seekingadvantages for theparty. Not necessarilyillegal but by definitionmorally questionable.
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Election campaigns 1983-2007
Democracies(considered Free byFreedom House)
More than 100 000inhabitants
Parliamentary orsemi-presidentialsystems
32 countries (19West; 13 CEE)
184 elections (12
missing) 171 analyzed
elections (124 in West& 47 in CEE)
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Data
Electoral Studies(156)
West European
Politics (11) European Journal of
Political Research (4)
Corruption allegationsmade
By whom?
Against whom? Corruption scandals
in connection with the
election
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Party manifestoes 1983-2003
1034 manifestoes in30 countries (Ukraine& Serbia missing)
755 in Western
European countries &279 in CEE
Percentage of partiesin each electioncampaign that
mention anti-corruption
Average share ofsentences referring toanti-corruption
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Share of election campaigns containing corruption allegation
Corruption allegations Yes No
% n % n N
All countries 22,2 40 77,8 131 171
Western Europe 17,0 21 83,0 103 124
Central and Eastern Europe40,4 19 59,6 28 47
Source: Election reports in Electoral Studies, West European Politics and European Journal of Political Research.Comment: Central and Eastern Europe refers to the former Socialist one party systems.
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Corruption allegations in electioncampaigns in Europe 1983-2007 (%)
23.1
11.1
34.2
26.2
23.1
11.6
38.6
50
18.413.7
32
40
38.5
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1983-1987 1988-1992 1993-1997 1998-2002 2002-2007
Year
Percen
t
All countr ies Western Central and Eastern
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Anti-corruption in party manifestoes
All countriesWesternEurope
Central andEastern Europe
% of party manifestoescontaining anti-corruption
50 45 63
% of sentences
containing anti-corruption
1,17 1,07 1,46
Total number ofmanifestoes
1034 755 279
Total number ofelections
146 108 38
umber of countries 30 19 11
Source: Party manifesto data sets in Budge et al., 2001 and Klingemann et al., 2006.Comment: Manifesto data covers the period 1983-2003 (except for UK for which there is data also for 2005).Thus, there is no data on Serbia and Ukraine.
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Politicization of political corruption by country
Country
Corruptionallegations,% ofcampaigns
Anti-cor-ruption, % ofmani-festoes
Anti-cor-ruption in% ofsentences Country
Corruptionallegations,% ofcampaigns
Anti-cor-ruption, % ofmani-festoes
Anti-corruption in% ofsentences
Ukraine 100 - - Estonia 20 55 1,19
Lithuania 67 85 1,28 Ireland 17 51 0,66
Romania 67 84 1,61 Belgium 14 83 1,47
Austria 63 72 2,52 Finland 14 18 0,81
Malta 60 100 3,57 Slovakia 0 64 1,58
Poland 50 43 1,35 Netherlands 0 53 0,15
Slovenia 50 26 0,72 Croatia 0 50 0,95
Latvia 40 62 1,94 France 0 45 0,73
Greece 38 100 4,09 UK 0 39 0,40
Czech R. 33 70 1,61 Germany 0 35 0,26
Iceland 33 26 1,04 Luxemburg 0 27 0,29
Italy 29 68 2,30 Switzerland 0 19 0,18
Portugal 25 76 1,52 Norway 0 11 0,03
Bulgaria 25 59 1,44 Denmark 0 8 0,12
Hungary 20 69 2,02 Sweden 0 0 0Spain 20 56 0,95 Serbia 0 - -
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Characteristics of parties using corruption allegations
Ideologicalorientation Incumbency Established
Left Right Yes No Yes No
n % n % n % n % n % n %
13 28 32 70 6 11 49 89 42 76 12 22
Source: Woldendorp et al. , 1998; Mller-Rommel et al., 2004.Comment: On the left-right dimension each party is counted only once. As incumbency and newness maychange from one election to the next, all parties in all elections are included on these two variables.In one case, Lega Nord, both the ideological belonging and the extent of newness were unclear.
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Anti-corruption parties
46 different parties, in 40 elections 18 West European; 28 CEE.
21 parties are big, influential, well
established. Only FP can be consideredpopulist in this category.
12 new parties
9 minor, mainstream parties 4 extremist parties.
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Most successful parties using anti-corruption rhetoric
Party Country Year + Left-right New Opp Gov.
National Movement Simon II Bulgaria 2001 42,7 R X X X
Labour Party Lithuania 2004 28,4 L X X X
Union of Democratic Forces Bulgaria 1997 28,1 R X X
Res Publica Estonia 2003 24,6 R X X X
New Era Latvia 2002 23,9 R X X X
Democratic Renewal Party Portugal 1985 17,9 L X X
Law and Justice Poland 2005 17,5 R X X
Civic Platform Poland 2007 17,4 R X X
Party of Democratic SocialismRomania 2000 15,1 L X X
Democratic Party Slovenia 2004 13,3 R X X
Liberal Democratic Party Lithuania 2004 11,4 R X X
Civic Democratic Party Czech R. 2006 10,9 R X X
Socialist Party Bulgaria 1994 10,4 L X X
Democratic Convention Romania 1996 10,2 R X X
Source: Election reports in Electoral Studies, West European Politics and European Journal of Political Research.Woldendrop et al. , 1998; Mller-Rommel et al., 2004.
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Top ranking parties in terms of anti-corruption in party manifestoes
Party Country Year
% Anti-cor-ruption inmanifestoes
Left-right New Opp +/- Gov
Confederation for anIndependent Poland
Poland 1991 27,37ER X 7,5
Republicans Czechosl. 1992 22,45 ER X 5,0
Freedom Party Austria 1994 21,11 R X 5,9
Social Movement-Right
National
Italy 1992 18,37
ER X -0,5Democratic Renewal Party Portugal 1985 16,07
L Y 17,9
Party of Democratic Left Italy 1992 12,59L
Y/N-10,5
New Democracy Greece 1989:1 12,03 R X 3,5
Coalition Left and Progress Greece 1989:1 11,86 L X 1,4
Coalition Left and Progress Greece 1989:2 11,86 L X -1,9
National Party (SNS) Slovenia 2000 10,53 R X 1,2
New Democracy (ND), Greece 1989:2 10,29 R X 1,9
Source: Party manifesto data sets in Budge et al. (2001) and Klingemann et al. 2006 .
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Shifts in government
Allegations
All cases = 42% 65%
High corrupt = 64% 92%Medium corrupt = 57% 78%
Low corrupt = 31% No allegations
Corruption scandal = 41%
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Conclusions
Increasing trend of anti-corruption rhetoric. The difference between east and west is widening. Large variation in politicizing political corruption among
the countries studied.
Corruption is not politicized in low corrupt countries. Politicizing political corruption is not an extremist orpopulist phenomenon
The issue appears to be under rather than overpoliticized
Corruption allegations make a difference for the outcomeof elections in medium and highly corrupt countries New parties are more inclined to use anti-corruption
rhetoric
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