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Corruption is a major challenge in the Arab Mediterranean countries (AMCs). The fight against it was a key point in the Arab uprisings, yet since then and despite the international community's attempts to support anti-corruption strategies, the governments of the AMCs have not been able to address effectively the demands of their population. The article compares the anti-corruption initiatives in four AMCs: two republican semi-presidential systems (Egypt, Tunisia) and two constitutional monarchies (Jordan, Morocco). It focuses on their fight against political corruption, which has different forms. To reduce corruption, policymakers advocate the decentralization of power, as it leads to more accountability and transparency. The article unpacks the idea of decentralization and asks to what extent it contributes to reducing political corruption in the region. In doing so, the article produces a new typology that adds two important factors that contribute to a better understanding of the links between anti-corruption initiatives and decentralization: the challenges to the political survival of the government and the type of external support to fight corruption. The findings show that decentralization measures frequently result in administrative deconcentration rather than the decentralization of decision-making. Thus, they reproduce political corruption in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Round 9 Afrobarometer survey data for Niger, this study examined the determinants of support for military intervention with particular focus on political instability, perceived corruption in the democratic government, and socioeconomic deprivation. The descriptive results showed that Nigeriens generally do not have a strong aversion towards military rule. In fact, about 70 percent of them agreed that the military should intervene when the democratic government is corrupt. The regression results showed that political instability, which was measured using the total number of violent conflict incidents in the region where respondents resided, was positively correlated with support for military intervention. This might be because people who are exposed to violence feel that a military government would do a better job at providing security. Perceived corruption in government was also positively correlated with support for military intervention. This might be because corruption engenders discontent with democratic institutions, prompting people to see military intervention as a way of curtailing the democratic government's excesses. Socioeconomic deprivation was negatively correlated with support for military intervention, which suggests that the poor prefer democracy to a military government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the roots of perceptions of local corruption in U.S. cities, using survey data collected from 39 cities during 40 different mayoral election campaigns. We examine the impact of the city-level corruption context alongside measures of political information, partisan and racial/ethnic representation in local government, evaluations of personal and policy satisfaction, and other individual-level attitudinal and demographic characteristics. We find that perceptions of local corruption are responsive to the local corruption context—though this relationship is heavily conditioned by political knowledge—satisfaction with local conditions, other attitudinal measures, and, to a lesser extent, co-ethnic representation in local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 two-way 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unusually large number of political scandals left their mark on Norwegian politics in 2023. Most of the scandals involved conflicts of interest for current and former government ministers, and they led to several Cabinet resignations and dismissals. The local elections in September were a big win for the two main parties on the right of Norwegian politics. The two centre‐left parties that constitute the national governing coalition fared poorly in the elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2023, Croatia joined both the euro and the Schengen area, thus completing full EU integration. No elections were held, and the Parliament experienced some minor cases of floor crossing while the government, although maintaining its party composition, reshuffled four ministers. The opposition criticized the government over political corruption and infringements upon media freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the underlying and immediate triggers of Nigeria's EndSARS protest and their interconnectedness. Leveraging Braun and Clark's reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with 11 participants along with the ethnographic approach, the authors constructed a broader theme termed 'EndSARS – An Umbrella'. They identify three primary themes (youth unemployment, endemic public sector corruption/poor police welfare and poverty) as the root causes of the EndSARS protest. In addition, they single out one theme (police – perennial human rights abuse) as the immediate cause. They contend that these prevalent socio-economic challenges, commonly experienced among the participants in their study, intersect and serve as pivotal catalysts for mobilization within the context of the EndSARS protest. These distinctive yet challenging characteristics play a central role in broadening the composition of the protesters, resulting in their quest for government accountability and a better Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines anti-corruption mechanisms within the public administration system as one of the most important tools in combating organized crime in the economic sector. Corruption and organized crime pose a serious threat to the stability and sustainable development of the state, as they undermine public trust in government institutions, create unfavorable conditions for business, and hinder economic progress. In a context where organized criminal groups are actively infiltrating various sectors of the economy, especially in the field of economic law, the implementation of effective anticorruption mechanisms becomes extremely relevant and necessary to ensure the economic security of the country. The analysis of legal norms and institutional frameworks indicates that the modern system of anticorruption measures in Ukraine is aimed at ensuring maximum transparency and accountability in the activities of public authorities. The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) play a key role in monitoring compliance with anti-corruption legislation and investigating the most complex and significant corruption cases that have a substantial impact on economic and social stability. The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) provides the necessary procedural oversight and supports the prosecution in corruption cases, enabling the effective implementation of anti-corruption policies at all levels of government. The article also discusses the implementation of an electronic declaration system that ensures the transparency of financial transactions of public officials and allows for the identification of possible cases of illicit enrichment, which is one of the most serious corruption offenses. Additionally, the ProZorro system, which ensures openness and transparency in the public procurement process, plays a key role in reducing corruption risks in the public sector. Special attention is also given to the use of blockchain technologies in financial monitoring, which can significantly increase trust in public finances and complicate the possibility of manipulation and abuse in thi s area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of corruption in all its manifestations, its causes and methods of overcoming it attracts the attention of a considerable number of scientists. Today, the sphere of labor and employment is not only an important institutional basis for the implementation of corruption and related offenses in the state in general, but also one of the goals of the spread of corruption in the state. The purpose of the article is to study the manifestations of corruption in Ukraine in the field of labor and employment, to identify existing problems in this field and to make proposals for their solution. Currently, the fight against corruption has become a priority of Ukraine’s state policy and part of its international obligations. During the period of the anti-corruption reform, certain results were achieved in this area of state and society activity, in particular, new legislation was adopted, anti-corruption bodies and courts were created, innovative tools for the prevention of corruption were introduced, and the development of public control is ongoing. At the same time, the current labor legislation, although it is quite progressive in terms of protecting the rights of employees, however, in order to more effectively use the opportunities to expose corruption, it needs changes aimed at forming an even greater protective role of labor law. Corruption in the sphere of labor and employment is considered as a special socio-legal phenomenon, which naturally has an extremely negative impact on the sphere of labor and employment, but it is also a phenomenon that can be minimized by labor-legal means (first of all, the normative basis of labor law, labor rights and obligations of subjects of labor law, acts of implementation of labor law, etc.), as well as a number of institutional mechanisms in the relevant field (first of all, the mechanism for preventing and countering nepotism, the mechanism for ensuring the exposure of corruption by employees, the mechanism for ensuring decent work, the mechanism for control and supervision according to the state of compliance with law and order in the sphere of labor and employment, the mechanism for ensuring the protection of information restricted in circulation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominant explanations for variation in performance between state organizations focus on macro-level factors, such as political support, and meso-level factors, such as civil service capacity. However, these factors cannot account for why different groups within the same state organization perform better than others. I leverage a comparative analysis of state officials working under particularly challenging circumstances—task forces of prosecutors investigating high-level corruption in Brazil—to develop a framework to explain how small-group communication and decision-making processes affect performance. Drawing on document analysis and 124 original interviews with federal investigators, I argue that, even when we account for macro- and meso-level factors, prosecutors performed better when they cultivated frequent communication and collective decision-making. This study shows the mechanisms through which these processes affect performance: while frequent communication enables group members to generate knowledge connections that help them make unforeseen discoveries, collective decision-making helps build defensive alignment , which allows members to protect the group from external pressures and manage internal tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the determinants of corruption in Russia based on an original survey of 1,376 businesspeople in 39 regions. Regression analysis reveals economically and statistically significant correlations between bribes, development, and state intervention in the economy. Using the instrumental variable of geographical location, this paper provides supportive evidence for a causal (negative) relationship between prosperity and bribes. It finds a positive correlation between regional corruption and state ownership and a negative one between corruption and the size of the bureaucracy. These results hold for both perceived and experiential corruption. This paper contributes to the investigation of corruption in Russia and post-communist countries. It illustrates the importance of economic development, effective bureaucracy, and the reduction of state property for mitigating corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizens' ability to hold corrupt politicians accountable is a key feature of democratic political systems. Particularly in the European Union (EU), such accountability mechanisms are often argued to malfunction due to the EU's complicated and opaque institutional structure, which could compromise voters' basic abilities to detect political malpractice in Brussels. Putting EU voters' attentiveness to the test, we provide quasi‐experimental evidence of the causal effect of a recent corruption scandal in the European Parliament. Leveraging an 'Unexpected Event during Survey Design' identification strategy in France and Germany, we document a sizeable negative effect of the so‐called Qatargate scandal on public trust in the European Parliament. This provides causal evidence on the presence of attentiveness to EU politics within these electorates. Given the EU's complex institutional structure, we derive two alternative implications from this finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is a symptom of wider political dynamics intertwined with sectors prone to criminal activities. This arises due to the laxity of legal enforcement or a dysfunctional political system. This paper analytically demonstrates the nexus between organized crime and corruption in the presence of the public sector. The relevant questions at this juncture are: (i) How does capital investment in the industrial sectors affect the crime–corruption nexus? (ii) Why a more stringent law-and-order enforcement may produce counterproductive outcomes? and (iii) Whether the creation of alternative income opportunities in the legally approved sectors by the government will lower corruption and decriminalize society? What we will try to show is that when corruption becomes necessary to sustain the criminal sector, capital expansion and deterrence policy augment crime and corruption. This crucially depends on a multitude of general equilibrium factors including the labor relocation effect, capital relocation effect, and factor intensity of sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to empirically verify the hypotheses that the increase in the share of women legislator in politics has the potential to reduce levels of corruption within the Parliament and overall political corruption levels. Using data from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) platform, fixed effects, and generalised method of moments (GMM-System) models are estimated for a set of 154 countries between 1995 and 2018. The results show that when considering corruption within the legislative house, the greater share of women in politics is associated with lower levels of corruption. Even after controlling for various societal factors, the results confirm the positive effect of women's participation in parliament on the decline of corruption. Yet, this effect does not seem to spill over into other branches of government and sectors of the public sphere. When considering the level of more general corruption, it responds much more to variations in structural aspects, as democratic maturity and equality in the distribution of political power among different socioeconomic strata, than to women's participation in parliamentary seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of civic action on enhancing accountability and combating corruption in political financing, focusing on two civil society initiatives in Uruguay. The initiatives aimed to digitize and map information on funding received by political parties and politicians in the 2009 and 2014 elections, presenting their findings through interactive online platforms. The paper engages theoretically with the literature on the dimensions of accountability and contributes to understanding the challenges faced by civil society organizations in promoting political financing accountability even in full democracies, a topic largely understudied. Findings highlight concerns beyond electoral authorities’ well-known resource constraints in detecting illicit political donations and spending in Uruguay. The paper shows that transparency is not enough to reduce corruption. We argue that for political finance accountability to be effective, it must encompass bottom-up, horizontal, and diagonal dimensions. The analysis suggests the need for complementary measures, such as digital solutions for reporting and disclosing political finance information, along with active horizontal and bottom-up oversight mechanisms. The article draws on qualitative analysis based on documentary research and 19 interviews with activists, academics, journalists, developers of the initiatives, and public officials involved in political finance regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption perceptions are not only shared social norms shaped by societal dynamics, but they also reflections of individual experiences, values, and viewpoints. This study examines the relationship between a set of individual- and community-level factors and perceptions of corruption, using the data from a nationwide survey in Sweden. We analyze the drivers of corruption perceptions among Swedish citizens across five key areas of public life: politicians, civil servants, police, public healthcare, and foreign aid. Our findings reveals that Swedish citizens hold sector specific perceptions of corruption - rather than singular and unified - with the foreign aid perceived as the most corrupt sector and healthcare as the least corrupt. Only a few factors exhibit a statistically significant impact on corruption perception across all five areas, reinforcing our main finding that there are varieties of corruption perceptions rather than a singular, unified view of corruption in the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little research has been done to identify the individual‐level factors contributing to the prevention of administrative corruption. Specifically, Iranian public employees are an understudied population in terms of individual and contextual factors that contribute to the prevention of administrative corruption. This study aimed to identify the perception of public servants about the psychosocial factors that facilitate the prevention of corruption. Method: Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 14 individuals working in public sector departments or agencies in Tehran. Results: Six main themes emerged from the data: cognitive characteristics (including "detachment‐promoting thoughts and beliefs" and "consequence‐focused thoughts and beliefs"), emotional patterns (including "deterrent negative emotions" and "deterrent positive emotions"), personality characteristics (including "self‐oriented conservative personality traits" and "other‐oriented prosocial personality traits"), behavioral strategies (including "need‐fulfillment strategies" and "self‐care strategies"), familial background (including "growing up in a rule‐oriented and value‐oriented family" and "living with an honest and supportive spouse"), and organizational context (including "employee monitoring" and "rule‐based and ethical space of the organization"). Conclusion: The study reveals some psychological and contextual factors that could be involved in preventing administrative corruption in Iran. These factors can be taken into consideration when designing preventive measures and policies aimed at reducing corrupt behaviors in public agents and promoting ethics in public service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPublic-sector corruption siphons trillions of dollars from the global economy and contributes to social instability. Institutional Anomie Theory, with its focus on the links between social institutions, individualistic and achievement-oriented cultural norms, and crime, offers a possible framework for understanding corruption. This possibility is contrasted with research indicating that individualistic values and free markets reduce corruption. Using twenty years of data from 83 countries, this study finds institutional imbalance toward the economy is associated with higher levels of corruption. The lowest levels of corruption are found in highly individualistic countries, though institutional imbalance had a strong positive effect on corruption in such countries. Conversely, corruption is high in collectivistic countries regardless of institutional imbalance. Findings underscore the importance of institutional and cultural configurations, and their interplay, for corruption. We discuss the implications of our study for Institutional Anomie Theory and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians tend to try deflecting scandals. Based on an attribution theory-driven perspective on persuasion, however, politicians should proactively confess. In a preregistered, multiple-message design, we conduct controlled, random assignment experiments. A mediation model is tested. Inspired by crisis communication's change-of-meaning concept, the first variable appraises the extent to which voters perceive that the messaging indicates the politician is engaging in a cover-up. The second linkage is the politician's credibility. The outcome variable is voters' behavioral intentions. In Experiment 1 (N  =   905 U.S. voters), stealing thunder and apologizing outperform stonewalling, changing the subject, sequentially apologizing plus deflecting, or silence. Experiment 2 (N  =   277) finds that, in a sex scandal, stealing thunder and apologizing continue to perform equally well. Our theoretical contribution resides in enhancing the explanatory power of theories designed to explain image repair, as well as empirically testing the independent and combined role of apology and stealing thunder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalism has long been presumed to serve as a check on the powerful, shedding light on wrongdoing; however, as local newspapers reach market failure, extant theory predicts corruption will go unchecked. We operationalize corruption as federal prosecutions for public corruption (PPCs), defined by the US Department of Justice as crimes involving the abuse of public trust by federal, state, and local public officials. We examine changes in the local news media ecosystems: first, whether declines in local newspaper employment and circulation are associated with changes in PPCs; and second, whether efforts to supplement watchdog journalism with nonprofit journalism might mitigate associated declines in federal PPC. Our findings suggest nonprofit interventions in failing local commercial news markets may be an important safeguard for keeping public officials accountable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spending concentration, political influence, and collusion violate rules and principles of open and fair public procurement, leading to corrupt contract allocation. This study adopts stochastic actor-oriented models to test the evolution of these forms of procurement corruption risks in a longitudinal network study of 33579 construction contracts pertaining to Guatemalan local governments from 2012 to 2020. We identify a range of network configurations, based on past empirical research and theory, that capture different patterns of suspicious micro tendencies suggestive of corruption. We show how these micro tendencies shift in strength according to changes in electoral cycles and anti-corruption interventions, thus shedding light on how interventions may temporarily impact corrupt behavior, and how it may adapt and persist after a period of transition. The results indicate that collusion and spending concentration play significant roles in sustaining the risk of corrupt contract allocation, and that this behavior is able to rebound even after the introduction of anti-corruption interventions and new political regimes. The findings underscore the importance of local interventions and advocate for network approaches to enhance transparency, accountability, and long-term anti-corruption efforts. • Stochastic actor-oriented modeling approach to test procurement corruption. • Corruption tendencies captured as network effects overtime. • Spending concentration and collusion are significant corruption risks. • Corruption practices evolve over time in response to contextual shifts. • It is important to enhance anti-corruption interventions at local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians may target public goods to benefit their constituents, at the expense of others. I study corruption in the context of Indian electricity and estimate the welfare consequences. Using new administrative billing data and close-election regression discontinuities, I show that billed electricity consumption is lower for constituencies of the winning party by almost 40 percent, while actual consumption, measured by nighttime lights, is higher. I document the covert way in which politicians subsidize constituents by manipulating bills. These actions have substantial welfare implications, with an efficiency loss of US$0.9 billion, leading to unreliable electricity supply and significant negative consequences for development. (JEL D72, D73, L94, L98, O13, O17) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We use the exogenous nature of political scandals to test whether political connections in the form of campaign contributions expose firms to reputational risk. We hand‐collect a sample of 218 scandals of members of the U.S. Congress that occurred between 2000 and 2019 and estimate the abnormal returns around the day a scandal first appeared in the news. We find that connected firms and to a lesser extent other politically active firms experience value losses around corruption scandals involving firms or lobbyists. These losses increase in managers' propensity to engage in unethical behavior. Moreover, we find that following such corruption scandals, media sources release negative news about connected firms, shareholders of connected firms are more likely to submit proposals on the disclosure of political contributions, and connected firms reduce political spending. Overall, our results suggest that losses around scandals are driven by reputation spillover and investors updating their beliefs about the risks of political contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Electronic procurement has received primacy as one of the significant reforms to help fight corruption and inefficiencies in the public sector across countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of electronic procurement adoption on procurement performance. Additionally, the paper examines the moderating role of institutional quality in the relationship between electronic procurement and procurement performance. Design/methodology/approach: The study applied an explanatory design and a quantitative research approach. Also, the study relied on UTAUT and institutional theory to develop a test research model using 121 responses from public entities in Ghana. Hypothesised paths were investigated using structural equation modelling. Findings: The findings revealed that electronic procurement adoption positively and significantly affects procurement performance. Also, the findings indicated that institutional quality positively and significantly affects electronic procurement adoption and procurement performance, respectively. Lastly, the findings proved that institutional quality moderates the relationship between electronic procurement adoption and procurement performance. Research limitations/implications: The study focused on public procurement entities in the Greater Accra Region – Ghana. The study contributes to adopting electronic procurement, institutional quality, and procurement performance literature. The study also extends the UTAUT and the institutional theory to African public entities. The study reechoes the importance of institutional quality in developing economies to enhance electronic procurement adoption. Originality/value: To the best of the researcher's knowledge, this is the first study that examines the moderating role of institutional quality in the relationship between electronic procurement adoption and procurement performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using debt structure data from a large sample of US non-financial companies during the period 2002–2016 combined with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) data on local public corruption, we examine the effect of public corruption on the degree of debt concentration in a firm's debt structure. The results imply that firms in corrupt areas tend to use several debt types simultaneously, decreasing in that way debt concentration. These findings remain robust to tests that control for endogeneity. In further analysis, we show that these results are stronger for more informationally transparent firms, i.e. investment grade rated and publicly listed firms, that have easier access to capital debt markets. Lastly, in terms of debt choices, we find that firms in corrupt areas issue more commercial paper, senior bonds and capital leases, while they borrow less from banks. The study provides useful policy implications for combating corruption, as informationally opaque firms face increased barriers to debt financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is a complex phenomenon which can appear in various forms and political corruption remains one of the most common forms.Political corruption further encompasses many forms, one of which is ethnic corruption. Ethnic corruption is one of form of corruption that involves giving certain ethnic groups privileges that other groups do not have. The purpose of these privileges is for the ruling political structure to stay in power. This type of corruption was common practice in the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union, and continues in its successor, the Russian Federation.. Pronounced ethnic corruption remains prevalent in many countries across Asia and Africa. With an increasingly polarized voting base in the United States, new forms of ethnic corruption have started to appear. Because of its characteristics, ethnic corruption is one of the most challenging types of corruption to address.

Copyright of Arab Journal for Scientific Publishing is the property of Research & Development of Human Recourses Center (REMAH) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate how the cultural heritage of bank CEOs shapes the relationship between public corruption and the cost of syndicated loans in the US market. We show that banks led by CEOs that trace their origin in high uncertainty avoidance societies penalize less sharply in loan pricing the presence of high local public corruption in the state of the borrowing firms. We find some similar evidence for banks led by CEOs that trace their origin to more individualistic societies. These findings are consistent with the view that certain cultural traits prompt tolerance for the risks of corruption and show that the pricing of institutional quality in corporate loans is conditional on banks led by CEOs with such traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent toppling of the Awami League regime after 15 years in power illustrates both the weakness of the Bangladesh state's capacity for constitutional rule and the strength of the armed forces. The military's role has been critical in each change of regime from the first, on 15 August 1975, to the most recent, in August 2024. The military has emerged as the only credible formal state power in Bangladesh mainly because it is largely free from accusations of corruption. Its role in UN peacekeeping ensures an external and legal source of income for its members. Civilian authorities, both politicians and civil servants who form the state governance machinery, function through their identities as members of a common political network, with extra salary income taken as payment for loyalty, something now seen as 'normal'. This has resulted in a 'withered' state: formal on paper, informal in practice. Meanwhile, trust in and dependence on the public service agencies and the formal economy is low. Traditional societal institutions still dominate while formal institutions have shown low growth and poor performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant literature on public opinion in international political economy documents the role that domestic corruption perceptions play in the formation of mass attitudes toward a range of integration-related foreign policies. Based on this precedent, we conjecture that corruption perceptions also affect opinions toward free trade. We build on a heuristic approach to attitude formation where individual perceptions of corruption among the political elite trigger positive attitudes toward foreign countries, firms, and products, what we refer to as a "foreignness cue." This cue drives individuals with high perceptions of corruption to be more supportive of free trade. Based on survey data from eighteen Latin American countries, we demonstrate that higher levels of perceived domestic corruption are associated with greater support for free trade. Causal mediation analysis provides additional evidence that positive attitudes toward foreign countries and firms are a conduit through which the corruption perceptions effect operates. We also offer evidence of external validity of the main effect by analyzing additional surveys on a distinct set of less and more developed countries. Our heuristic-based model of support for free trade complements theories based on material self-interest as a basis for attitude formation in the realm of trade policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the perception of corruption shape the willingness to bribe? This study evaluates the socio-psychological determinants of corruption by measuring how different types of messages influence the probability of engaging in corruption for access to public health, social programs, and official documents. This research uses the social norms approach to explore the link among messaging, perception, and behavior. An online experiment was conducted in Peru for two weeks between October and November 2021, using social media (Facebook) to recruit participants (n  = 2584). The participants were divided into two treatment groups and one control group. Those in the treatment groups received informational displays on (i) the perception of corruption as widespread in the public sector (descriptive norm) or (ii) corruption as morally wrong (injunctive norm). The control group did not receive a message. Exposure to messages on corruption increased the overall probability of engaging in corruption. Unexpectedly, those in the injunctive norm group increased their willingness to bribe. Furthermore, this study also found significant differences in bribing behavior based on the different types of public service, gender, and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Michel Foucault's seminal essay, "Of Other Spaces," I will explore Colley Cibber's library as a "heterotopia of indefinitely accumulating time," a space that symbolically represents, in Pope's imaginative world, the dangers posed by a modernity gone wild to the values epitomized by classic antiquity. Like Virgil, who guides Dante through Inferno, Pope leads his readers through the library's circles of folly, demonstrating that Cibber's confusion of space, time, and value is a consequence of his misguided relationship with his books. In this library, Cibber's books—classic, gilded, or voluminous—are assigned specific spaces: the exemplary ones are stashed under the beautiful, the lavishly adorned are crammed under the pedantical, or, in Cibber's case, the books of a plagiary. This hierarchy reflects the value system promoted, in Pope's view, by the moderns, whose political and cultural corruption inevitably results in subpar productions and debasement of taste. Within the larger argument of the poem, Pope's radical rewriting of Theobald's monologue and immolation scene from the Variorum to fit the new hero better delivers the poem's message of the intertwining of writing and political compromise, which becomes a major theme of the Dunciad in Four Books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalists, through the media, cover and frame corruption scandals, which gives them a relevant role in how citizens inform themselves about this phenomenon. The aim of this article is to investigate whether information professionals are influenced by their ideology when assessing the level of corruption in different institutions, as well as to explore whether they believe that media coverage of this phenomenon is influenced by polarization. To achieve this, a representative survey was conducted between March and July 2023 among 391 Spanish journalists from various types of media across the country. They were primarily asked about their political ideology and their perception of corruption in different institutions. The results reveal that journalists tend to perceive corruption levels differently based on their political ideology, with a tendency to perceive greater corruption in parties and institutions they consider opposed to their ideological orientation. This phenomenon is not limited to political parties (which, obviously, have an explicit ideological position), but also extends to other ostensibly neutral or politically unaligned institutions. Additionally, most journalists agree that political polarization in Spain encourages media outlets to seek and prioritize publishing scandals occurring within parties of opposing ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some modern conflicts, stronger militaries have displayed poor performance in conflicts, as evidenced by slow military offensives, high battlefield casualty rates, failure to secure planned objectives and defeat in the war. Poor conflict performance, in these cases, is attributed to material and certain non-material state characteristics such as regime type, economic development, and ideology. Current explanations of conflict performance, however, have yet to integrate empirical evidence identifying another state characteristic as a negative influence on state capacity: corruption. To address this gap, we identify direct and indirect theoretical channels by which state-level corruption impacts conflict performance. Corruption decreases the war material available to troops on the ground and negatively impacts strategic decision-making by commanders. An analysis of states in interstate conflicts from 1816 to 1990 confirms the relationship between corruption and several measures of conflict performance. Case evidence from the First Russian-Chechen War is used to illustrate the mechanisms of our argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article assesses three new books on the "Golden Age" of caricature in Britain and the United States: Tim Clayton's James Gillray: A Revolution in Satire  (2022), Amanda Lahikainen's Money and Materiality in the Golden Age of Graphic Satire  (2022), and Alison M. Stagg's Prints of a New Kind: Political Caricature in the United States, 1789-1828  (2023). The article considers how satirical cartoons simultaneously educated and entertained the public about important issues, such as political corruption, nation building, and the perils of a credit economy based on paper money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the evaluative attitudes of citizens and their association with regime support in European democracies. In the context of widespread public scepticism with politics, different findings about the effect of political dissatisfaction in terms of democratic legitimacy have appeared. This may imply that citizens' attitudes towards politics and their interrelations are complex and that the effects might not be the same across individuals and contexts. To investigate the link between political dissatisfaction and democratic support, data from the European Values Study and hierarchical regression models are used. The results of the analysis suggest that political dissatisfaction is not related to democratic support by highly interested and highly involved citizens. Nevertheless, contrary to the assumptions, the negative effect is quite strong in less corrupt countries, while in corrupt ones it tends to be positively related to democratic support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studies show that public opinion and educational workshops promoted by nonprofits affect judicial behavior, it remains unclear whether and how social movements affect judges' decision-making through disruptive actions. I develop a framework to explain the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which social movement mobilization affects the decision-making of judges, drawing on a mixed-methods study of anti-corruption protests in Brazil. I constructed an original dataset of decisions of corruption cases at the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice (2003–2016). Results showed that actions that target judicial cases (case-focused protests)—but not protests that simply put the issue on the public agenda—are associated with higher chances that judges will decide in ways that are aligned with the movements' demands. I supplemented this data with a qualitative analysis of appeals on two investigations of similar crimes and some of the same defendants but with different outcomes in appellate courts: Sandcastle (Castelo de Areia) and Car Wash (Lava Jato). Drawing on 110 interviews with prosecutors and judges and document analysis of criminal charges and judicial decisions, I show that case-focused protests affect judicial behavior through two mechanisms: by threatening the personal reputation of judges and the legitimacy of courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the interplay between corruption, personality traits and political trust. It argues that individuals' personality traits may condition the effect of corruption experience on trust and that these traits also affect how individuals are exposed to corrupt experiences. Using data from the AmericasBarometer 2010, the study finds that openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability amplify the negative effect of corruption on trust in the police. However, only extraversion amplifies the negative effect of corrupt experiences on trust in government. The study also finds that openness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability are linked to exposure to corruption. The study contributes to the literature by showing that personality affects exposure to corruption and constrains the effect of corruption on political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panama's new president, José Raúl Mulino, has close ties to former president Ricardo Martinelli, who was disqualified from the presidential race due to a prison sentence for corruption. Mulino's right-wing government is expected to prioritize projects such as pension system reform and public healthcare, which may further exacerbate inequality in the country. Mulino's cabinet is largely composed of Martinelli allies, and his administration is likely to be business-friendly. There are concerns about Mulino's stance on mining and water issues, as he is seen as an ally of the mining sector and has expressed a centralized approach to addressing water shortages. [Extracted from the article]

Public procurement is crucial for effective crisis responses, but is also prone to corruption. To ensure a swift provision of medical supplies in the COVID-19 pandemic, the public procurement regulations were dramatically relaxed. However, the implications for corruption require attention. This paper analyses how the regulatory responses to the crisis affected the risks and perceptions of corruption, by changing public-private interactions and the regulatory environment for public procurement. We compare the contrasting cases of Italy and Germany and triangulate legal analyses, secondary contract and survey data, and an online survey of public administrations (N = 445) and businesses (N = 175). Unexpectedly, in both countries, objective risks of corruption increased similarly. Sector-specific corruption perceptions stem from a low competitiveness of procedures, rule ambiguity, and a politicised bureaucracy. To avoid wasting resources and losing trust, regulatory responses to the crisis should include clear rules that safeguard competitive public procurement procedures and preserve bureaucratic independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1896–1897, Louisa Lawson (1848–1920) filed a number of patent applications. This article explains how her inventions were an expression of modern feminist practice and aligned with the progressive suffragette campaign for equal economic rights for women. It plots the unrelenting opposition to Lawson's entrepreneurship and explains why her successful litigation to enforce her legal rights was a hollow victory. This history raises significant questions of contemporary relevance about law, culture, power and political strategy demonstrating the historical resistance of all major institutions of the modern democratic state – unions, bureaucracy, parliament and the courts – to gender inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption cases in Indonesia are considered extraordinary crimes because they can impact many things. Corruption can have an impact on the country's economy, the welfare of citizens, the fulfillment of human rights, and access to the basic needs of citizens. The government has made various efforts such as transparency and accountability in state financial management which is useful for public funds. One way is through E Government. Ironically, the number of corruption cases has never disappeared. In order to effectively eradicate corruption, it is necessary to provide the widest possible space for public participation as control or supervision of government administration in the management of public funds. In order for supervision to be effective, the public needs to first clearly understand the concepts of accountability and transparency. The aim of this research is to determine the public's understanding of e-government accountability and transparency and its influence on public participation as supervisors of public funds managed by the government. This research is quantitative research. The results of this research can provide input in efforts to prevent corruption in Indonesia. The research results show that there is a relationship between public understanding of transparency and accountability and public participation in corruptıon prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]