POLI107 Week 2 Reading - Nord et al 2024 - democracy

Flashcards on Democracy and Corruption

Corruption

Misuse of public office for private gain, including executive, legislative, judicial, and public sector corruption, but excluding electoral fraud.

Freedom of Expression

A democratic component that initially increases corruption at low levels due to low accountability and easier communication, but reduces corruption at high levels with strong media oversight; follows an inverted U-curve pattern.

Freedom of Association

A democratic component that initially increases corruption at low levels due to easier communication, but reduces corruption at high levels with strong civil society oversight; follows an inverted U-curve pattern.

Judicial Constraints on the Executive

A democratic component where strong oversight reduces executive corruption, following a negative linear relationship.

Legislative Constraints on the Executive

A democratic component where strong oversight reduces executive corruption, following a negative linear relationship.

Elections (Existence & Quality)

A democratic component where simply holding elections increases corruption, but high-quality elections reduce corruption through effective electoral accountability.

Accountability Costs

Democracies increase punishment risks for corruption through strong elections, independent courts, and free media.

Transaction Costs

Corruption requires coordination, which is difficult in authoritarian regimes with restricted communication, but easier in moderate democracies.

Political Benefits (related to corruption)

Politicians may use corruption to maintain power, especially in weak democracies, due to increased uncertainty from elections.

Electoral Democracy Index (V-Dem)

Measures democracy level using Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) data.

Country-Fixed Effects

Control for time-invariant factors like colonial heritage, ethnic heterogeneity, and religion in analyses.

Year-Fixed Effects

Control for global co-trending of democracy and corruption in analyses.

Curvilinear Relationship (Democracy and Corruption)

Describes how corruption increases as countries transition from autocracy to moderate democracy, then declines at high levels of democracy.