Cabinets, Prime Ministers and Corruption. A Comparative Analysis of Parliamentary Governments in Post-War Europe

Hanna Bäck; Jan Teorell; Staffan I Lindberg

Cabinets, Prime Ministers and Corruption. A Comparative Analysis of Parliamentary Governments in Post-War Europe

Hanna Bäck, Jan Teorell, Staffan I Lindberg

Department of Political Science

University of Gothenburg

Research output: Working paper/Preprint › Working paper

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Abstract

Why are some states more corrupt than others? Previous research explaining corruption suggests that multiparty governments are associated with higher levels of corruption since it is difficult for voters to hold parties in such cabinets accountable. Drawing on the literature on coalition governance, we suggest that a lack of government corruption has more to do with the ability of other key political actors to control the agents that have been delegated power in cabinet. We use a new dataset (Varieties of Democracy), giving us more specific measures on governmental corruption across a longer time-period. We show that corruption is significantly lower when the Prime Minister (PM) has strong constitutional powers, suggesting that the PM as a principal reduces agency problems.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	Lund
Publisher	Department of Political Science, Lund University
Number of pages	35
Publication status	Published - 2016 May

Publication series

Name	STANCE Working Paper Series
No.	6
Volume	2016

Subject classification (UKÄ)

Political Science (excluding Peace and Conflict Studies)

Free keywords

corruption
multiparty government
accountability
coalition governance
Varieties of Democracy
V-dem dataset
constitutional power
prime ministers

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

2016-6, Bäck, Teorell & LindbergOther version, 1.06 MB

STANCE: State-Making and the Origins of Global Order in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond
Teorell, J. (PI), Bartelson, J. (PI), Björkdahl, A. (Researcher), Bäck, H. (Researcher), Goenaga, A. (Researcher), Hall, M. (Researcher), Kalm, S. (Researcher), Lindvall, J. (Researcher), Ravndal, E. (Researcher), Svensson, T. (Researcher), von Hagen-Jamar, A. (Researcher), Eitrem Holmgren, L. (Project coordinator), Hjärtström, L. (Administrator), Olin, M. (Administrator) & Hansen, M. (Administrator)
The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation: Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Science Research
2015/01/01 → 2020/12/31
Project: Research

Cite this

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KW - V-dem dataset

KW - constitutional power

KW - prime ministers

M3 - Working paper

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Cabinets, Prime Ministers and Corruption. A Comparative Analysis of Parliamentary Governments in Post-War Europe

Abstract

Publication series

Subject classification (UKÄ)

Free keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

STANCE: State-Making and the Origins of Global Order in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond

Cite this