Browsing by Author "Grimes, Marcia"

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Allmänhetens inställning till den nya Västkustbanan: Resultat från enkätstudie 2000
(2001) Grimes, Marcia; CEFOS
Contestation or Complicity: Civil Society as Antidote or Accessory to Political Corruption
(2008-04) Grimes, Marcia; QoG Institute
Corruption interferes with and distorts the political and implementation processes, often to the disadvantage of the already disadvantaged. Yet our understanding of the factors that might propel a political system from lower to higher levels of probity (or vice versa) remains speculative at best. This article examines the role of one category of actors often touted as an important agent of change: civil society organizations. Considerable theoretical and empirical work exists on the expected and observed benefits of civil society for democracy more generally. Few studies have systematically examined the relationship between the richness of associational life and the quality of governance in a country. Moreover, several parallel theoretical accounts exist regarding the mechanism through which civil society might enhance government performance but few studies examine the relative explanatory merit of these theoretical accounts. This study addresses both of these gaps. The results show that civil society does have some bearing on the extent to which corruption exists in a country, and that the primary mechanism seems to be that civil society engages in contestation and representation of public interests. Two other theoretical accounts – that associations build social capital and therefore reduce corruption, and that welfare services provided by civil society organizations are less susceptible to corruption – receive less robust support in these data.
Curbing Corruption through Social Welfare Program? The effects of Mexico's conditional cash transfer program on good government
(2009-05) Grimes, Marcia; Wängnerud, Lena; QoG Institute
Conditional cash transfer programs, an innovation in social welfare administration, have shown tremendous promise as a means of enhancing human capital and reducing leakage of public resources through corruption. While numerous studies examine the effects of the program on human capital indicators in Mexico and various other countries that have adopted the approach, little is known about the effects of these programs on levels of corruption and on political life more generally. Using data on Mexico’s 31 states from Transparency International Mexico, the Federal Register of Civil Society Organizations and the national census, this paper analyses whether conditional cash transfers have any bearing on corruption but also on two other aspects of political life argued to affect government probity in the long term: the density of civil society organizations and empowerment of women. The conclusions are encouraging with respect to reducing corruption but rather dismal regarding the effects on civil society and women empowerment.
Democracy´s Infrastructure. The Role of Procedural Fairness in Fostering Consent
(2005) Grimes, Marcia
Disruptive Protests and Bureaucratic Structures in Latin America and the Caribbean
(2014-05) Cornell, Agnes; Grimes, Marcia; QoG Institute
The paper examines why citizens in some democracies engage in disruptive political actions to a larger extent than in other countries. Our hypothesis adds to previous research that focuses on individual factors, representational issues or discontent with public sector performance to explain the occurrence of disruptive protests. We hypothesize that a more politically controlled administration introduces turbulence in democracies, especially where civil society is strong. A public administration heavily controlled by politicians, and staffed to a large extent with politically appointed individuals, allows politicians to intervene in policy implementation and favor some groups over others in terms of access to public services and employment. Such a system may induce citizens to resort to disruptive actions to express demands and grievances, and secure access to public goods. We test this argument empirically on data from 19 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis.
G-FORS Governance for Sustainability. National Case Study Report – Sweden
(School of Public Administration/Förvaltningshögskolan, 2008) Johansson, Folke; Niklasson, Birgitta; Norén Bretzer, Ylva; Grimes, Marcia; Göteborgs universitet; University of Gothenburg
Good Government in Mexico: The Relevance of the Gender Perspective
(2012-10) Grimes, Marcia; Wängnerud, Lena; QoG Institute
A number of studies explore the link between gender and good government, and confirm the cor-relation first observed by Dollar et al (2001): the number of women in elected office is related to levels of corruption. These studies build on cross-country comparative analyses and have thus far failed to discern whether the observed correlation indicates causation or whether both derive from successful liberal democratic project. We explore these issues in an analysis at the subnational level in Mexico. Using several waves of data from a bribe-payers survey conducted by Transparencia Mexicana, we examine the dynamic interrelationship between women in government and levels of corruption over time. The results suggest that levels of corruption affect women’s ability to enter the political arena, but that once in political office, the presence of women in government contributes to reducing corruption. While the latter finding is somewhat less certain, we subject the hypothesis to a rigorous test, as the analyses consider whether female representation is linked to change in the prevalence of bribe-paying between 2001 and 2010.
Introducing Uncertainty: Community Driven Development and Local Collective Action Capacity
(2022-12) Boräng, Frida; Grimes, Marcia; Ahlborg, Helene; The Quality of Government Institute
In areas with entrenched poverty and weak state presence, community driven development (CDD) initia-tives aim to secure the provision of services such as water, waste water and electricity, while engaging the community as stakeholders in a way that ensures sustainability. CDD is today a widely used approach in both government and donor funded development efforts. Communities prioritize local needs and contrib-ute resources and labor; external actors provide support, sometimes contingent, consisting of supplementary funding and sometimes capacity building. Given limited resources for development, not all community projects can be supported by external funds and considerable variation exists with respect to how commu-nity projects are selected. In many CDD programs, the selection process induces competition between local communities over external funds, even if this is not the intention. In those cases, communities mobilize and coordinate efforts under conditions of significant uncertainty regarding whether the external funds will be provided, and thus if the public good will materialize. This paper spotlights this aspect of CDD program design and sounds a call for more systematic assessment of how CDD design affects local collective action capacity. We illustrate the arguments with data from 87 interviews on rural development efforts in Tanzania, comparing two cases from the same local context but differing in terms of CDD design.
Logics of Action: How state institutions may undergird or undermine participatory development
(2023-03) Ahlborg, Helene; Boräng, Frida; Grimes, Marcia; The Quality of Government Institute
Participatory development has strong normative appeal. In areas with entrenched poverty and poor public service provision, participatory initiatives are predicted to empower otherwise silent members of a demos, improve public services, and engage community members as both stakeholders and customers in a way that ensures the sustainability of policy work. These expectations, widely held in the development commu-nity, rest on a number of assumptions regarding citizens behavior: that they will engage in such initiatives, that they will work to further the long-term interests of the community as a whole, and that they are will-ing to play the role of principals in accountability relations. Recent meta-analyses of participatory initiatives point to state institutions as a key determinant of their success or failure, though knowledge on which attributes of state institutions matter, and why, remains underdeveloped. Drawing on extensive interview and fieldwork data on a small-scale rural electrification project in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper seeks to identify more specifically how weak, or absent, state institutions shape the priors that citizens bring into development projects. We identify three specific logics – collective action logic, taxpayer logic and custom-er logic – integral to project success but which were not firmly entrenched in the community. The paper aims to lay the groundwork for both more theoretically founded research on participatory governance as well as more realistic efforts to involve poor citizens in community development.
Political Will for Anti-Corruption Reform: Communicative pathways to collective action in Ukraine
(2023-03) Keudel, Oleksandra; Grimes, Marcia; Huss, Oksana; The Quality of Government Institute
The importance of political will to bring about institutional reform to reduce corruption is universally rec-ognized, but little is known about when and how it emerges. This paper examines six local settings which exhibit positive change in terms of anti-corruption political will. Theoretically, we develop a definition of political will suited to anti-corruption, and then, drawing on scholarly work on policy formation, norm change, and collective action, identify key steps involved in shifting and sustaining local actors’ preferences to support anti-corruption work. The analyses build on data from 70 interviews with local public authori-ties in six cities in Ukraine. The processes varied considerably across the six cases in terms of the actors involved and the organization of anti-corruption work. The commonalities, identified inductively, instead relate to the functions of communication. Those functions enabled local actors to establish, continually reaffirm and mutually recognize commitments to reform, operationalize those commitments into actiona-ble plans, and continually persuade relevant stakeholders to sustain reform momentum.
Seeing the State: The Implications of Transparency for Societal Accountability
(2010-06) Bauhr, Monika; Grimes, Marcia; Harring, Niklas; QoG Institute
International organizations and NGOs promote transparency as a necessary condition for enhancing accountability and curbing corruption. Transparency is predicted to deter corruption in part by increasing the opportunities for inter-institutional oversight and formal accountability, but also by expanding the possibilities for societal accountability, i.e. for citizens to monitor, scrutinize and hold public office holders accountable. While the societal accountability mechanism linking transparency and good government is often implied, it contains a number of assumptions seldom examined empirically. This study theoretically unpacks and explores empirically how transparency may influence good government via the mechanism of societal accountability, that is, by inciting reactions and responses from citizens. Using data compiled by the Quality of Government Institute, we show that increased transparency prompts different public reactions in countries with comparatively higher levels of corruption than in low corrupt countries. The data indicate that in corrupt countries, transparency, counter to many predictions, erodes political trust but stimulates civic engagement. The findings suggest that transparency may incite discontent and civic mobilization in the short term, contributing to greater accountability and better government in the long term.
The conditions of successful civil society involvement in combating corruption: A survey of case study evidence
(2008-10) Grimes, Marcia; QoG Institute
Corruption interferes with and distorts the political and implementation processes, often to the disadvantage of the already disadvantaged. Yet our understanding of the factors that might propel a political system from lower to higher levels of probity (or vice versa) remains speculative at best. This article examines the role of one category of actors often touted as an important agent of change: civil society organizations. Considerable theoretical and empirical work exists on the expected and observed benefits of civil society for democracy more generally. Few studies have systematically examined the relationship between the richness of associational life and the quality of governance in a country. The results show that civil society does have some bearing on the extent to which corruption exists in a country, and that the primary mechanism seems to be that civil society engages in contestation and representation of public interests.
What is Government Transparency? New Measures and Relevance for Quality of Government
(2012-12) Bauhr, Monika; Grimes, Marcia; QoG Institute
As policymakers and researchers focus increasing attention on the importance of government transparency for accountability and good governance more generally, the demand for greater conceptual clarity and authoritative measures of government transparency increases. Transparency advocates maintain that greater access to government information is the sine qua non of greater accountability and better quality of government in the long term. As a concept, transparency is, similar to rule of law or democracy, difficult to capture with single empirical indicators. This paper introduces a set of measures that we argue together capture key components of government transparency: government openness, whistleblower protection and likelihood of exposure (or publicity). The transparency data, collected through an expert survey carried out by the Quality of Government Institute, currently cover 52 countries with additional countries to be added in subsequent surveys. This paper explores these new measures in an effort to determine their validity and robustness.