Good Government MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd ii 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd iiii 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 Good Government The Relevance of Political Science Edited by Sören Holmberg University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Bo Rothstein University of Gothenburg, Sweden Edward Elgar Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd iiiiii 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 © Sören Holmberg and Bo Rothstein 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited The Lypiatts 15 Lansdown Road Cheltenham Glos GL50 2JA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. William Pratt House 9 Dewey Court Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2012935296 ISBN 978 0 85793 492 5 (cased) Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire Printed and bound by MPG Books Group, UK 3 0 MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd iivv 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 Contents List of contributors vii Preface x 1 Introduction: political science and the importance of good government 1 Sören Holmberg and Bo Rothstein PART I WHAT IT IS 2 Defi ning and measuring quality of government 13 Bo Rothstein and Jan Teorell 3 Public administration around the world 40 Carl Dahlström, Victor Lapuente and Jan Teorell 4 Need or greed corruption? 68 Monika Bauhr 5 Impartiality and the need for a public ethics of care 87 Helena Olofsdotter Stensöta PART II HOW TO GET IT 6 In democracy we trust, but how much? 105 Nicholas Charron and Victor Lapuente 7 Press freedom and corruption 130 Mathias A. Färdigh, Emma Andersson and Henrik Oscarsson 8 Weberian bureaucracy and corruption prevention 150 Carl Dahlström and Victor Lapuente 9 Do international organizations promote quality of government? 174 Monika Bauhr and Naghmeh Nasiritousi 10 State legitimacy and the corruptibility of leaders 191 Anna Persson and Martin Sjöstedt 11 Legislators and variation in quality of government 210 Staff an I. Lindberg 12 Why women are less corrupt than men 230 Lena Wängnerud v MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd vv 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 vi Good government 13 Rethinking the nature of the grabbing hand 251 Anna Persson, Bo Rothstein and Jan Teorell PART III WHAT YOU GET 14 Part of the solution 277 Sören Holmberg, Bo Rothstein and Naghmeh Nasiritousi 15 Access to safe water 303 Sören Holmberg and Bo Rothstein 16 Happiness 317 Marcus Samanni and Sören Holmberg Index 333 MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd vvii 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 Contributors Emma Andersson has served as a research assistant in the Swedish National Election Studies (SNES) program, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Monika Bauhr, PhD is a research fellow at The Quality of Government Institute and a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Her research interests include transparency, corruption, environmental politics and international relations. Nicholas Charron, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Gothenburg and research fellow at The Quality of Government Institute. He received his PhD from Florida State University in 2007. His work has been published in journals such as the European Journal of Political Research, Cooperation and Confl ict, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, the Journal of Comparative Economics and the Journal of Development Studies. Carl Dahlström, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg. His research is concerned with comparative and historical perspectives on public administration and welfare state policy making. His papers have appeared in Governance, the Journal of Comparative Economics, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, the Journal of Public Policy, Party Politics and Political Research Quarterly. Mathias A. Färdigh, PhD candidate, Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG), University of Gothenburg. His research interests include media freedom, political communication, corruption and the interplay between media and quality of government. Sören Holmberg, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Former director of the Swedish National Election Studies (SNES) program and the Society–Opinion–Media Institute (SOM). Together with Bo Rothstein he co- founded The Quality of Government Institute. His research interests include electoral behavior, political repre- sentation and good government. vii MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd vviiii 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 viii Good government Victor Lapuente, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Gothenburg and a research fellow at The Quality of Government Institute. He obtained his PhD at the University of Oxford in 2007; his research deals with public administration, corruption and comparative political economy. Staff an I. Lindberg, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. Co-P I for Varieties of Democracy (V-D em); Research Fellow for World Values Survey Sweden; Research Fellow at The Quality of Government Institute, and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Florida. His research has dealt with state build- ing, political clientelism, political parties, legislative–executive relations, women’s representation, voting behavior, elections and democracy in Africa. Naghmeh Nasiritousi, PhD candidate at the Unit of Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping University. Her research interests include international institutions, transparency and accountability, and global governance. Henrik Oscarsson, Professor of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Director of the Swedish National Election Studies (SNES) program and Head of the SOM Institute. His research interests include representative democracy, opinion formation, and electoral behavior. Anna Persson, Assistant Professor and researcher at the Department of Political Science and The Quality of Government (QoG) Institute, University of Gothenburg. Her primary research interests concern the comparative politics and political economy of development. Her research focuses on institutional theory, corruption, and state capacity, particularly in the areas of nation building, taxation and public goods provision. Bo Rothstein, August Röhss Chair in Political Science, University of Gothenburg, and Head of The Quality of Government Institute. His research interests include comparative institutional theory, social policy, corruption and social trust. Marcus Samanni has a master’s degree in political science, and is a research assistant at The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg. His research interests include the links between good gov- ernment and various phenomena, for example, how abundance of natural resources aff ects governmental quality, and how good government pro- motes citizens’ happiness. Martin Sjöstedt is currently a research fellow at the Department of Political Science and The Quality of Government (QoG) Institute, University MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd vviiiiii 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 Contributors i x of Gothenburg as well as at the Swedish Agency for Development Evaluation. His primary research interests are the comparative political economy of developing countries, institutional theory, aid eff ectiveness, and natural resource management. Helena Olofsdotter Stensöta, Associate Professor of Political Science, Lund University. Her research interests include gender, ethics in public administration and public policy. Her articles have appeared in Public Administration Review, the Journal of Public Administration and Research and Theory. Jan Teorell, Professor of Political Science, Lund University. His research interests include political methodology and comparative politics, particu- larly political participation, public opinion, corruption and comparative democratization. He currently works on two large research projects: how and why electoral fraud and corruption were abolished historically in Sweden and other established democracies, and measuring multifaceted concepts of democracy around the world from 1900 to the present. Lena Wängnerud, Professor of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. She is coordinating the Multidisciplinary Opinion and Democracy (MOD) research group. Her research interests include political representation, gender equality and good government. MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd iixx 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199 Preface This book is an outcome of a research program we started in 2004 at the University of Gothenburg, called “The Quality of Government Institute”. The purpose of The QoG Institute has been to promote research on the causes, consequences and nature of “good governance” and “quality of government” – which we broadly defi ned as trustworthy, reliable, impar- tial, uncorrupted and competent government institutions. There were many reasons why we decided to take this initiative. One was that we wanted to make political science research more relevant by focusing on the connection between the capacity and quality of government institu- tions that implemented public policies and what this meant for human well- being. Our suspicion was that dysfunctional government institutions were a major source of human suff ering around the world – a hypothesis that, as shown in this volume, has been thoroughly confi rmed. We also wanted to engage in a constructive dialogue with other social scientists, most of them in economics, who had become interested in the importance of “good governance”. However, just as war is often thought to be too serious a business to be left entirely in the hand of generals, we thought that what should constitute “good governance” ought not to be researched solely by our colleagues in economics. The QoG Institute was quite a small operation when we started, consist- ing of we two, one researcher and one half- time assistant. Due to a large grant from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation in 2006, QoG is now an operation engaging about 20 researchers and a handful of PhD candidates. Additional funding has come from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Swedish Science Council, the European Union Directorate General for Regional Development, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. We would like to thank our collaborators in the QoG Team for joining us in this venture and for bringing along so much energy and creativity. We believe we have shown that the synergy eff ects generated from rela- tively large and coherent research groups focusing on a common theme that is often mentioned in the natural sciences, can also work in the social sciences. In particular, we would like to thank our research assistants and x MM22992299 -- 99778800885577993344992255 HHOOLLMMBBEERRGG..iinndddd xx 2277//0066//22001122 1133::1199