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The book argues that clarity of responsibility increases accountability and decreases corruption levels in democracies tested empirically.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. A clarity of responsibility theory of corruption; 3. A dataset of democracy and corruption; 4. Clarity of responsibility and aggregate corruption perceptions; 5. Corruption voting - a survey analysis; 6. Corruption and accountability - an experimental analysis; 7. The effect of clarity on elite efforts to combat corruption; 8. Beyond anticorruption efforts - elite attention to corruption; 9. Conclusions.
About the author
Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rice University, Houston and her work focuses on institutions and presidential systems with a regional focus on Latin America and developing democracies. She has published her work in the American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, British Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies and Legislative Studies Quarterly. She has published two books, Political Power and Women's Representation in Latin America and The Gendered Effects of Electoral Institutions: Political Engagement and Participation.Margit Tavits is a Professor of Political Science at Washington University, St Louis. Her work is grounded in democratic institutions with a geographic focus on Europe, industrialized democracies, and post-communist countries. She has published this work at top journal outlets including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, British Political Science Review, European Political Science Review and Comparative Political Studies. She has published two books, Presidents with Prime Ministers and Post-Communist Democracies and Party Organization.
Summary
The book argues that clarity of responsibility increases accountability and decreases corruption levels in democracies. The authors provide a number of empirical tests of this argument using an original cross-national time-series dataset, mass survey data, and a survey experiment.
