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- Citizens’ and Politicians’ Definitions of Corruption, Corruption Survey Quality, and Political Will for Anti-Corruption Reform: The Portuguese Case Put to the TestPublication . Maciel, Gustavo; Santos, Inês F. DosCorruption is recurrent in conversations and political debates, but it can have different meanings. This study aimed to assess how the words that 1,020 citizens and 120 politicians in Portugal associated with corruption interacted and varied. Data came from two surveys that collected responses to “What words do you associate with corruption?” from October 2020 to April 2021: the EPOCA-FCT survey conducted with citizens and the ETHICS-FFMS survey conducted with MPs and local elected officials in office. We used network analysis to find that the mass-elite incongruence when defining corruption can be used (a) to enhance corruption surveys and (b) as a tool to foster political will for anti-corruption reform in areas/sectors that are linked to corruption. In Portugal, corruption came down to “theft of money by politicians” (citizens) and “dishonesty and illegality in a crony relationship” (politicians), and the promotion of integrity in the Banking sector emerged as central to any anti-corruption reform. This was the first attempt to show that knowing what citizens and politicians have in mind can be a valid tool to enhance both the quality of future corruption surveys and the implementation of anti-corruption policies when no short-term political will for a change exists.
- Tolerance towards corruption in democracy: measurement, mass-elite (in)congruence, and causalityPublication . Maciel, Gustavo; Sousa, Luís Manuel Macedo Pinto deThis thesis provides a more nuanced understanding of «Tolerance towards Corruption» (TtC) in democracy. In chapter one, major cross-country indices to measure TtC are compared, indicating that there islimited information on individuals’ predisposition to tolerate types of corruption that raise legal ambiguity or are less focused on the transactive nature of the phenomenon. Citizens’ tolerance towards illicit corrupt exchanges to obtain public services in Europe appears to depend on age, and perceived corruption extension and prior contact. In chapter two, citizens’ and politicians’ patterns of tolerance towards market, parochial, and institutional types of corruption are explored, using Portugal as a case study. The major conclusion is that the normalisation of parochial corruption in power relations has indirectly facilitated the perpetuation of institutional mechanisms that reinforce social exclusion and the adoption of unethical behaviours as a means of restoring a sense of equality and reducing feelings of relative deprivation, especially among younger individuals. In chapter three, the responses of university students in Portugal and Spain to an online conjoint experiment were used to identify the motivations to tolerate a corrupt politician seeking re-election. The results demonstrate that the decision to vote for a corruption-tainted candidate is influenced by factors beyond ideological alignment, such asthe candidate’s availability and integrity, the existence of benefits that resulted from the corrupt actions, and the absence of connections between the scandal and judicial investigations. The general findings indicate that there is no straightforward, universal measurement, or solution to TtC in democracy. Instead, what is required is an articulated approach, encompassing the dissemination of knowledge on corruption-related issues to the younger generations, the regulation of ethical standards across the various domains of political activity, the promotion of integrity as a fundamental value, and the implementation of policies designed to alleviate the feelings of deprivation.
- Los Estudios cuantitativos en América LatinaPublication . Camerlo, Marcelo; Maciel, Gustavo; Barreto, Lis¿De qué modo la controvertida y supuesta ola cuantificadora de la ciencia política está avanzando en la región? El presente artículo aborda esta pregunta a través de un análisis exploratorio de la producción académica considerada de mayor prestigio, una dimensión de la disciplina bien acotada pero de relevancia significativa para la comunidad científica. Específicamente, el análisis bibliométrico de 418 artículos identificados como cuantitativos y publicados entre 1996 y el 2018 en seis de las revistas mejor clasificadas, en lo que definimos como arenas doméstica, regional e internacional.