Aksel Sundström

Corruption as an obstacle to women’s political representation Evidence from local councils in 18 European countries

This article presents evidence from 18 European countries showing that where levels of corruption are high, the proportion of women elected is low. We hypothesize that corruption indicates the presence of ‘shadowy arrangements’ that benefit the already privileged and pose a direct obstacle to women when male-dominated networks influence political parties’ candidate selection. There is also an indirect signal effect derived from citizen’s experiences with a broad range of government authorities. The article uses data that are more fine-grained than usual in this literature. We conduct an empirical test on a new dataset on locally elected councilors in 167 regions in Europe. Using a novel measure of regional quality of government and corruption we perform a multi-level analysis with several regional- and national-level controls. This study provides a unique picture of the proportion of women in locally elected assemblies throughout Europe and a new way of understanding the variations found.

What determines women’s political representation at the local level? A fine-grained analysis of the European regions

Mainly investigating the share of women in national parliaments, the vast cross-national literature on women’s descriptive (numerical) representation frequently overlooks women’s local representation. Yet, local councils are important political arenas. To what extent are women underrepresented there? What are the determinants of the variation of women’s local representation within and across countries? We investigate these questions through a subnational-level study, covering 272 regions in 29 European countries. Using multilevel modeling, we find that regions with high female labor force participation support for leftist rather than radical right parties and high degrees of urbanization tend to elect more women. Our results also indicate that high women’s representation levels at the national level trickle down to the local level.

Corruption and citizens' satisfaction with democracy in Europe: what is the empirical linkage?

This article evaluates the influence of corruption on how individuals assess the state of democracy in their country. Distinguishing between individual perceptions of small-scale corruption and macro-level corruption trends, we are interested in the question: which of the two indicators influences citizens’ judgments of their regime? Controlling for ten micro-level factors (i.e. individuals’ satisfaction with the government, economy, education system, their participation in social activities, their feeling of public safety, and their assessment on whether they are discriminated against, as well as the four demographics gender, age, education and income) and four contextual factors (i.e. development, economic growth, democratic stock, and income inequalities) our hierarchical linear model offers some nuanced results. First, we find that an individual’s assessment of whether the police and the judges are corrupted influences his or her satisfaction with democracy. Second, our results indicate that the same finding does not apply for the broad macro-level corruption indicator; macro-level corruption is rather unrelated to how a person judges the quality of democracy in his or her country.ZusammenfassungDer Artikel untersucht den Einfluss von Korruption auf die Einstellung von Individuen hinsichtlich ihrer Bewertung des Demokratiegrades ihrer Länder. Hierbei unterscheiden wir zwischen der individuellen Wahrnehmung von Korruption auf der Mikroebene sowie Korruptionsphänomenen auf der Makroebene und fragen danach, welcher dieser beiden Indikatoren die Regimebewertung durch die Bürger beeinflusst. Unsere Mehrebenenanalyse überprüft zehn Faktoren der Mikroebene (individuelle Zufriedenheit mit der Regierung, Wirtschaft, dem Bildungssystem, ihrer Beteiligung an sozialen Aktivitäten, das Empfinden öffentlicher Sicherheit, und ihre Einschätzung, ob sie bezüglich der vier demographischen Merkmale Geschlecht, Alter, Bildung und Einkommen diskriminiert werden) und vier Kontextfaktoren (Entwicklung, Wirtschaftswachstum, Demokratisierungsgrad und Einkommensungleichheit). Die Analyse bietet dabei ein differenziertes Ergebnis: Erstens stellen wir fest, dass die individuelle Einschätzung, ob Richter oder die Polizei korrupt sind, die Zufriedenheit mit der Demokratie beeinflusst. Zweitens legt unsere Analyse nahe, dass ein ähnliches Ergebnis bezüglich Korruption auf der Makroebene nicht gibt. Korruption auf der Makroebene steht in keinem Zusammenhang mit der individuellen Bewertung der demokratischen Qualität eines Landes durch dessen Bürger.

Gender differences in environmental concern among Swedish citizens and politicians

Numerous studies find modest, consistent gender differences in environmental concern within the general publics of North American and European countries, but results from the few studies of gender differences among politicians are inconsistent. We test if women report stronger environmental concern than men across four levels of the Swedish polity, utilising three data sets: a representative sample of the general public, a survey of all representatives in municipal-level and county-level councils, and a survey of members of the Swedish Parliament. Results from our multivariate ordered logistic regression models reveal a consistent pattern across the lower three levels: women report greater environmental concern than men in the general public and in municipal and county councils. In the Swedish Parliament, however, the apparent effect of gender is largely explained by political orientation.

Overfishing in Southern Africa: A Comparative Account of Regime Effectiveness and National Capacities

Abstract The international community has in recent decades supported the installment of formal regulations and institutions for monitoring, control, and surveillance to decrease illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in African nations. Yet, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of these reforms. By conducting a systematic comparison of the enforcement of fisheries regulations in five Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, we illustrate how the effectiveness of international agreements and regional commitments is fundamentally conditioned by national capacities. The empirical investigation also provides some tentative insights into the general dynamic process and mechanisms through which this can be understood.

Examining Gender Differences in Environmental Concern in the Swedish General Public, 1990-2011

While numerous cross-sectional studies find modest gender differences in environmental concern within the general publics of North American and European countries, this pattern has not been examined over time—primarily due to a lack of suitable data. Using twenty-two years of nationally representative survey data from the Swedish general public, we test whether the theoretically expected relationship between gender and environmental concern—where women are modestly more proenvironmental than men—is robust over time. Results from our multivariate ordered logistic regression models reveal a consistent pattern over the time period. Across all available years of data, women report greater environmental concern than men in the Swedish general public. Specifically, Swedish women report greater worry about environmental destruction, greater worry about climate change, and greater support for environmental protection than men. Thus, this gender difference in environmental concern is indeed robust. The theoretically expected relationship between gender and environmental concern is robust not only across environmental concern indicators and countries of study but also over time.

Women's rights in democratic transitions: A global sequence analysis, 1900–2012

What determines countries’ successful transition to democracy? This article explores the impact of granting civil rights in authoritarian regimes and especially the gendered aspect of this process. It argues that both mens and womens liberal rights are essential conditions for democratisation to take place: providing both women and men rights reduces an inequality that affects half of the population, thus increasing the costs of repression and enabling the formation of womens organising – historically important to spark protests in initial phases of democratisation. This argument is tested empirically using data that cover 173 countries over the years 1900–2012 and contain more nuanced measures than commonly used. Through novel sequence analysis methods, the results suggest that in order to gain electoral democracy a country first needs to furnish civil liberties to both women and men.

Organizing the Audit Society: Does Good Auditing Generate Less Public Sector Corruption?

Few cross-country studies examine the effects of auditing quality on public sector corruption. We present a definition of good auditing consisting of three principles: independence, professionalism, and recognizing the people as the principal. Using novel data from an original expert survey covering more than 100 countries, the concept is then operationalized and tested empirically. The results demonstrate that good auditing has a positive effect on national levels of public sector corruption. This lends reason to believe that auditing which is organized according to certain principles has potential to contribute to well-functioning public administrations with a low degree of corruption.

Women in cabinets: The role of party ideology and government turnover

There is still relatively little research on what factors explain the share of women in cabinets across countries and time. Focusing on party ideology, we advance this budding research. First, we examine if heads of government from left-leaning and/or liberal parties tend to select a larger proportion female cabinet members than those from conservative parties. Second, we evaluate whether a switch toward a left-leaning or liberal government benefits women’s cabinet presence. We test both propositions empirically with a data set covering mainly Western and industrialized countries after 1968. Our statistical analysis only find lukewarm support for the first proposition, that is, left-wing parties are no longer more likely to nominate women to cabinet posts than other party families, particularly liberal parties. Rather, what we do find is that a change in government, regardless of whether the new formateur is left-wing, liberal, or conservative, benefits the nomination of women to cabinet posts.

Women’s Empowerment at the Local Level

Research on women’s numerical representation has foremost focused on national legislatures. Despite the importance of local councils, the presence of female politicians at the local level has seldom been studied in a comparative perspective. A reason for this research gap is the lack of reliable figures that map women’s presence in local assemblies within and across countries. This chapter presents a novel dataset on the share of female local councilors for 441 regions across 38 European countries, including Turkey. We present the variation found in this data, note certain empirical trends, and describe some of the outputs stemming from this project. The chapter ends by discussing how such a data collection venture can be expanded and outlines areas of study for a future research agenda.