| dc.description.abstract | Traditionally, Sweden is viewed as a country where corruption and abuse of power for
personal gains have been regarded as rare exceptions. Accordingly, Sweden is consistently
found at the top in various international indices of corruption. In recent years, however,
several instances of corruption and power abuse have been exposed in the media, and surveys
have shown that large shares of Swedish citizens harbour perceptions that corruption is not
uncommon among politicians and public officials. Drawing on recent survey data, two
empirical questions are being investigated. First, to what extent do Swedish citizens believe
that corruption constitutes a serious problem? Secondly, how do citizens’ evaluations of the
extent of public corruption affect support for the performance of the democratic system?
Approaching the issue from a comparative Nordic perspective, data indicates that Swedish
citizens are considerably more prone to believe that politicians and public officials are corrupt
and act non-impartially than their Nordic counterparts. The analysis also suggests that such
perceptions constitute an important determinant of public support for the performance of the
political system. Thus, even in a least likely case of corruption, such as Sweden, growing
public concerns about the extent of corruption has a potential to negatively affect the
legitimacy of the democratic system. | sv |
