1 LEGISLATIVE STUDIES QUARTERLY, 0, 0, December 2019 DOI: 10.1111/lsq.12259 RAFFAELE ASQUER Independent Researcher MIRIAM A. GOLDEN European University Institute BRIAN T. HAMEL University of California, Los Angeles Corruption, Party Leaders, and Candidate Selection: Evidence from Italy Research indicates that voters are not particularly effective at removing corrupt politicians from office, in part because voters make decisions on the basis of many competing factors. Party leaders are much more single-minded than vot- ers and will choose to deselect implicated legislators if it means maintaining a positive party reputation and improving the odds of winning a legislative major- ity. We examine renominations to Italy’s legislature in two periods marked by corruption. We compare these renomination patterns with those from the prior legislature, when corruption lacked political salience. Our analysis shows that in- cumbent renominations are negatively associated with the number of press men- tions that link the incumbent to corruption—but only when corruption is salient to the public. Our study highlights the importance of party leaders in forcing malfeasant legislators out of office—and reducing corruption—and redirects at- tention from voters to political elites as a critical channel in enforcing democratic accountability. The theory of democratic accountability draws on the idea that the fundamental role of voters is to threaten elected politicians with loss of office if they do not perform adequately (Ferejohn 1986; Przeworski, Stokes, and Manin 1999). The the- ory is motivated by a bottom-up perspective that sees the evolu- tion of democratic practices unfolding through the increasingly effective work of an informed, educated, and vigilant citizenry. Emerging from this framework is a large literature on whether voters punish politicians implicated in scandals, especially those involving political corruption. Summarizing, these studies report two key findings. First, in survey experimental settings, voters © 2019 Washington University in St. Louis
Corruption, Party Leaders, and Candidate Selection: Evidence from Italy
Jul 06, 2023
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