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17 May 2016

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Accountability, Corruption, Voting

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Do voters use their vote to oust corrupt politicians and, if not, why not?

“Fighting corruption is a vital aspect of good governance. Yet, it is also a highly persistent phenomenon, indicating that tackling corruption is not always at the top of an incumbent politician’s agenda. One way to solve this problem is to engage in “corruption performance voting”; that is, to use elections to punish incumbent politicians for high levels of corruption.

But do voters actually engage in this kind of voting behavior? Alejandro Ecker, Konstantin Glinitzer and Thomas M. Meyer show in the linked post that while some voters do engage in “corruption performance voting”, the segment of voters that are willing to hold incumbents accountable is limited by their partisan preferences, their expectations about future government, and by the characteristics of the country they live in.”

Source: http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=21766

In orher words, corrupt politicians receive a “get out of jail” free card from voters who put their allegiance to parties first.

One thought on “Do voters use their vote to oust corrupt politicians and, if not, why not?”

  1. See recent election of Alison Hernandez as Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner despite being under investigation for electoral fraud by Devon and .Cornwall Police for an example of zombie voting, where voters do not seem to care about the probity, honour and integrity (not to mention relevant experience) of those that they vote in, preferring instead to vote by habit – in this case voting Tory because that is what they vote in Parliamentary elections, possibly because they “have always voted Tory” or possibly because their fathers and grandfathers did before them.

    WHAT RELEVANCE HAS CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PARTY POLITICS TO WHO WOULD BE THE BEST PERSON FOR POLICE & CRIME COMMISSIONER? Or for that matter who would run local government best?

    Just because you vote Tory in Parliamentary elections doesn’t automatically mean you should vote Tory in all other elections.

    Indeed, I would go further and suggest that – if we look only at party politics and ignore all other factors like policies, experience etc. – IF you are going to vote for a party in local elections (i.e. for local government or other roles like PCC) then electing someone from the opposite party than the one in government is a MUCH better plan than voting in someone from the same party. Why? Because someone from the opposite party will act as a check-and-balance against central government, trying to ensure that changes are not too extreme.

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