Jordi Muñoz

Turning a Blind Eye Experimental Evidence of Partisan Bias in Attitudes Toward Corruption

This article considers how partisanship conditions attitudes toward corruption. Stirred by the puzzle of why corruption does not seem to have the electoral consequences we would expect, it explores whether party supporters are more tolerant toward corruption cases when they affect their own party. The partisan-bias hypothesis is confirmed by a survey experiment carried out in Spain, a country where a number of corruption scandals have been recently visible. The results show that the same offense is judged differently depending on whether the responsible politician is a member of the respondent’s party, of unknown partisan affiliation, or of a rival party. Furthermore, the degree of partisan bias depends on political sophistication. This suggests that although partisanship may induce tolerance to same-party corruption practices, the partisan bias disappears when political awareness is high.

Institutional trust and multilevel government in the European Union: Congruence or compensation?

Does trust in national institutions foster or hinder trust in the institutions of the European Union (EU)? There is no agreement in the literature on popular support for the EU about the direction of the relationship between trust in national and European institutions. Some scholars argue that both will be positively related, others have proposed the opposite hypothesis: low levels of trust in national institutions will lead citizens to higher levels of support for the EU. We argue that both hypotheses are true but operate at different levels: whereas more trusting citizens tend to be so in both the national and the European arenas, we also find that at the country level the relationship is negative: living in a country with highly trusted and well-performing institutions hinders trust in the European Parliament. We test our hypotheses using data from the European Social Survey and Hierarchical Linear Modeling.

Economic expectations and support for secession in Catalonia: between causality and rationalization

Support for independence from Spain has sharply increased in recent years in Catalonia. According to all available evidence, public opinion has shifted from an overwhelmingly pro-autonomy position to an increasingly pro-independence stance. How can we explain such widespread support for secession in a democratic context? Traditionally, national identity has been regarded as the main explanatory factor, but recent accounts tend to underline the effect of political elite’s agency as well as instrumental calculations regarding the economic consequences of secession. However, the identification of this last causal effect is subject to a fundamental challenge: the possibility that economic expectations are mere rationalizations of prior preferences. In order to overcome this identification problem, we combine the analysis of observational survey data with an original survey-embedded experiment that provides a robust test of the causal nature of economic expectations. Our results show how identity, as well as partisanship, are the main drivers of support for secession, but also that economic considerations play an independent role. Results show that economic motivations are more relevant for citizens with ambivalent identity positions and for those that have no party identification, or are partisans of parties with less clear-cut stances on the issue.

From National-Catholicism to Democratic Patriotism? Democratization and reconstruction of national pride: the case of Spain (1981–2000)

Abstract Attachment to the nation is often seen as a stable attitude that provides a ‘reservoir of diffuse support’ for a country, beyond any specific institutional setting. However, I argue that certain deep social and political changes in a country may imply a reconstruction of nationhood that should modify the social bases of support for the nation. I test this hypothesis in the Spanish case, by tracing the changes in the impact of ideology, religion and region of residence on the intensity of national pride during and after the transition from Francoism to democracy. Results show an evolution that is congruent with my theoretical expectations, even if the process seems to be incomplete and, for certain variables, highly mediated by political cycles.

Depolarization in the 2005 Autonomous Elections in the Basque Country: Towards a New Scenario For Peace?1

Abstract In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2005 autonomous election in the Basque Country. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level and the main reasons behind the apparent stability of the polarized multiparty system and its ideological basis. We finally discuss the implications of the results for the political system at Basque and Spanish levels.

The 2005 Autonomous Election in Galicia: the End of Conservative Hegemony1

Abstract In this paper, the results of the 2005 autonomous election in Galicia are analyzed. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level explain the main reasons behind the defeat of the Popular Party after 16 years of absolute majority in the Galician Parliament and discuss its implications for the political system at the Galician and Spanish levels.

Why do voters forgive corrupt mayors? Implicit exchange, credibility of information and clean alternatives

ABSTRACT Corruption cases have limited electoral consequences in many countries. Why do voters often fail to punish corrupt politicians at the polls? Previous research has focused on the role of lack of information, weak institutions and partisanship in explaining this phenomenon. In this paper, we propose three micro-mechanisms that can help understand why voters support corrupt mayors even in contexts with high information and strong institutions: implicit exchange (good performance can make up for corruption), credibility of information (accusations from opposition parties are not credible) and the lack of credible alternatives (the belief that all politicians are corrupt). We test these mechanisms using three survey experiments conducted in Catalonia. Our results suggest that implicit exchange and credibility of information help explain voters’ support for corrupt politicians.

The Autonomous Elections of 1 November 2006 in Catalonia

In this paper, we present the facts and results of the 2006 autonomous election in Catalonia. After a review of the political context and the campaign, we present and analyze the results at electoral and institutional level and the main reasons behind the stability and change in the electoral behaviour. We finally discuss the implications of the results for the political system at Basque and Spanish levels.

State-level Politics and Regional Electoral Competition: First- and Second-order Effects in Spain's Autonomous Elections in 2007

On 27 May 2007, the eighth series of ‘autonomous’ elections was held in the 13 Spanish autonomous communities (ACs) that hold their elections on the same day (Spain is officially divided into 17 au...

Professionalization and Parliamentary Careers

This chapter analyzes the degree of professionalization, the career paths and the future career aspirations of representatives in the Spanish parliament and in the autonomous parliaments. First, we find that acting as a full-time representative is the rule rather than the exception among legislators from all territorial levels. Second, municipal politics appears as the usual starting point of political careers. Third, in most autonomous communities, these career paths show a territorial hierarchy and far more representatives move from the autonomous parliament to the Spanish parliament than the other way around. However, in territories with distinct party systems, the career paths of Spanish parliament and autonomous parliament representatives do not show a territorial hierarchy but territorial specialization.