Corruption and confidence in Australian political institutions

Corruption is inimical to public support for democratic government. This article uses Australian public opinion surveys to clarify the link between corruption and views of political institutions. The results show that citizens' personal experiences of corruption among public officials are negligible, but that three in four believe that there is some corruption among politicians and almost half believe that corruption in Australia is increasing. Perceptions of corruption matter much more than personal experiences of corrupt public officials in shaping confidence in political institutions. For policy-makers, the findings have implications for how corruption is handled, and in the measures that should be put in place to allay the public's fears about the increase in corruption.

腐败妨碍了公众对民主政府的支持。本文使用澳大利亚舆论调查,澄清了腐败与政治体制观的联系。研究显示公民个人对于公职人员腐败的经验可以忽略不计。倒是四分之三的人相信政客中存在某种腐败,几乎近一半人相信腐败在澳大利亚与日俱增。对腐败的认识,比个人对公职人员中腐败的耳闻目见,对于形成对政治体制的信赖要重要得多。对于政策制定者,这些发现有助于他们处理腐败,采取措施缓和公众对于日增的腐败的恐惧。     

Political Cleaners: Women as the New Anti‐Corruption Force?

There is currently a myth in the making: that women are less corrupt than men. Recently some aid donors have cited statistical evidence that countries with larger numbers of women in politics and in the workforce have lower levels of corruption. That this finding can be explained by the fact that there are more women in politics and the workforce in liberal democracies that are anyway less corrupt than poorer less liberal regimes does not detract from the eagerness with which some development actors are seizing upon the potential role women might play in fighting corruption. The myth of women's incorruptibility is not, of course, new. It is grounded in essentialist notions of women's higher moral nature and an assumed propensity to bring this to bear on public life, and particularly on the conduct of politics. After demonstrating that some of the recent studies about gender and corruption record perceptions about propensities to engage in corrupt behaviour, this contribution suggests rather that the gendered nature of access to politics and public life shapes opportunities for corruption. In addition, corruption can be experienced differently by women and men, which has implications for anti‐corruption strategies. A gendered analysis of corruption is in fact a useful entry‐point to the examination of the gendered nature of accountability failures, and of gender‐specific gaps in current attempts to promote good governance.     

加强反腐倡廉的法制建设

加强反腐倡廉建设应当注重法制,发挥法律和制度对公共权力的规范和制约功能,形成权力相互协调、相互制约、相互监督的运行机制,逐步铲除腐败现象产生的土壤和条件,实现用制度办事、靠制度管人、按制度行使权力。这就要求建立和完善反腐倡廉的法制体系,以保证人民赋予的权力用来为人民谋利益。     

Owning Valence Issues: The Impact of a “Culture of Corruption” on the 2006 Midterm Elections

The 109th Congress commenced with a huge ethical cloud hanging over the Capitol. In January 2005, prominent Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff admitted conspiring to defraud Native American tribes and corrupt public officials. As a result, the Democratic Party chose to adopt corruption as a central theme of their 2006 congressional campaign. They argued that the scandal resulted from a “culture of corruption” fostered by Republicans, who controlled Congress. Although past research shows that voters do punish at the polls congressional incumbents under criminal investigation, little is known about whether the mere appearance of wrongdoing can be assigned to an entire party and cost its candidates votes. Utilizing data from a variety of sources, we find that systemic efforts by House Democratic leaders to frame Republicans as “owning” the scandal—whether individual members actually received Abramoff funds or not—were largely successful in the polls and at the ballot box. These findings suggest that scholarly views of the influence of corruption may have been overly restrictive and that voters are willing, at least in this case, to punish public officials who “appear” to be corrupt.     

Shoes,lies and videotape: Corruption and the French state

The frequency of corruption scandals in contemporary France is linked to various institutional and political factors. Recent affairs have highlighted the personal transgressions of the perpetrators while anti-corruption legislation has distinguished between corruption for private and public ends. But in the Elf, party-financing and contaminated blood scandals corruption may be seen as intrinsic to the interaction between political and economic elites. Above all, recent scandals, and the mixed record of attempts to deal with them, highlight the social fracture between elites and society at large, whose alienation from mainstream institutions intensifies as the affairs continue.     

Compound Democracy and the Control of Corruption: A Cross-Country Investigation

In this article we evaluate the influence of democracy on perceived levels of corruption. We argue that the control of corruption depends on the compensation and accountability of public officials, and on an open and competitive economy. We analyze the influence of democracy, controlling for the influence of other political and economic factors including federalism, economic development, and economic competition. The findings for the importance of economic factors are consistent. The finding in earlier research that federalism increases corruption is not robust. The findings for democracy are influenced importantly by the way that democracy is measured, but we do find that citizens' repetitive participation in competitive elections increases the control of corruption. In doing so, we move beyond the composite indices of democracy in constructing an alternative compound measure of democracy, which we argue is likely to be useful in other research contexts     

Exploring the Paoli Battlefield: The Cultural Landscape of Conflict

Historical Archaeology - The archaeological study of “the West” and “the frontier” provides a bounty of research questions. However, as researchers delve into issues of...     

Public or Private Operation of Publicly Owned Railroads

Railroads are now owned by state or local governments in most of the American states. Public ownership does not necessarily bring public operations; indeed, most of the publicly owned lines are privately operated. Public operation is more likely to be found in states with noncompetitive political parties, relatively low population density, higher levels of political corruption, and a higher proportion of public lines that serve port or terminal facilities.     

Religious Speech in the Public Square

Abstract

I examine the reasons often given for restricting religious language to the private domain. Despite acknowledging their force, I argue that suppressing religious speech in public conversations is inherently dangerous, suggesting that such a policy undermines mutual trust and confidence, is corrosive of individual integrity and that such marginalization of religious language deprives social discussions of vital resources. Finally I propose a set of qualities and virtues that should underpin the way that religious languages and perspectives are deployed in public so that fears about this can be overcome in service of a more harmonious and enriched level of exchange in the public sphere.     

Italian Public Opinion in the Atomic Age: Mass-market Magazines Facing Nuclear Issues (1963–1967)

Through the analysis of a wide range of Italian mass-market magazines and a selection of public opinion surveys, this essay investigates widespread images and perceptions about nuclear issues in Italy during the Sixties. It considers the views of Italians about nuclear weapons within foreign policy debates, as well as the wide range of fears expressed about the atomic bomb. The article also analyses the image of anti-nuclear movements, as well as Italians’ views on disarmament and the easing of international relations after 1962. Deeply influenced by ideological divides and filtered through the mechanisms of mass culture – which tended to trivialise the bomb – these widespread representations of nuclear issues offer a unique perspective on Italians’ beliefs, fears, and hopes during a time of deep socio-economic change and shifting political equilibriums in the country.     

The Australian Catholic Church and the Public Sphere: World Youth Day 2008*

World Youth Day 2008 was the largest public religious gathering in Australian history, which proudly celebrated Catholicism in the streets of Sydney. This article argues that the organization and outcomes of World Youth Day 2008 were significantly shaped by the perceptions of Catholic Church leaders and officials who were determined to present the Catholic Church as a powerful opponent of the trend toward secularization. The organizers of World Youth Day 2008 achieved significant success in overcoming the legacy of sectarianism, the fears of secularization, the problems of internal division and scandal, and distrust and suspicion in the media prior to the event. The event showed that the Catholic Church was very capable of negotiating the Australian public sphere, and successfully marketed an energized and inclusive brand of Catholicism to the broader public.     

The 1948 Belcher Affair and Lynskey Tribunal

Although the Belcher affair was one of the biggest cases ofpolitical corruption in twentieth-century Britain, the scandaland resultant judicial inquiry have received little attentionin political histories of the 1940s due to their lack of electoralimpact. This outcome was not apparent to contemporary politicalcommentators. The allegations were serious and elements of theConservative Party were willing to use them to smear the Labourgovernment. The government successfully defused the scandalby appointing a judicial inquiry to investigate the allegations.They hoped this would dispel rumours of widespread corruption.However, it had the unintended effect of scotching public debate.The allegations became sub judice, hindering the activitiesof the scandalmongers. Tedious press coverage of the tribunalhearings bored many voters, who interpreted the scandal in linewith their existing beliefs.     

The public playground paradox: ‘child’s joy’ or heterotopia of fear?

ABSTRACT

Literature depicts children of the Global North withdrawing from public space to ‘acceptable islands’. Driven by fears both of and for children, the public playground – one such island – provides clear-cut distinctions between childhood and adulthood. Extending this argument, this paper takes the original approach of theoretically framing the playground as a heterotopia of deviance, examining – for the first time – three Greek public playground sites in relation to adjacent public space. Drawing on an ethnographic study in Athens, findings show fear to underpin surveillance, control and playground boundary porosity. Normative classification as ‘children’s space’ discourages adult engagement. However, in a novel and significant finding, a paradoxical phenomenon sees the playground’s presence simultaneously legitimizing playful behaviour in adjacent public space for children and adults. Extended playground play creates alternate orderings and negotiates norms and hierarchies, suggesting significant wider potential to reconceptualise playground-urban design for an intergenerational public realm.     

Playing with fear: parkour and the mobility of emotion

This article engages debates on emotional geography and non-representational theory by considering fear as a distinctly mobile engagement with our environment. Parkour, or freerunning, has exploded into public consciousness through commercial media representations and films. It is depicted as a spectacular urban sport that either can or cannot be done. Through ethnographic research with groups of parkour practitioners I consider what has been excluded from these representations: the emotions involved in trying, experimenting, and gradually learning to be in places differently. In parkour places are ‘done’ or mobilised in tentative, unsure, ungainly and unfinished ways which can be characterised by a kind of play with architecture. I argue that this play is contingent upon an array of fears, which, rather than being entirely negative, are an important way in which practitioners engage with place. Here fears can manifest differently, not only restricting mobility, but in some cases encouraging imaginative and playful forms of movement.     

Gender differences in teenage alcohol consumption and spatial practices

In recent years teenagers have reported a decline in under-age drinking at the same time as their access to public space has been increasingly curtailed. In this paper we explore the spatial practices and drinking behaviours of a group of teenage girls and boys aged 13–14 years in Liverpool, UK. Our analysis considers how their use of space was bound up with experimentation with alcohol and how this varied by gender. We find in support of previous research that both boys and girls report nuanced experiences of public space, with some enjoying greater freedom while others have moved into more domestic and supervised leisure spaces in response to fears about their safety in public spaces. The boys also reported less alcohol consumption than the girls. These gendered experiences were mediated by social relationships and encounters with other young people, their parents and carers and also other adults in positions of authority.     

Collapse,Sustainability, and the Environment: How Authors Choose to Fail or Succeed

Collapse is a perennial topic among historical scholars, and a favorite source of lessons for our future. Collapse literature often reflects contemporary fears and aspirations. The four books discussed here mirror today's concern with anthropogenic environmental degradation and climate change, and for better or worse, influence a reading public far beyond the academy. Two books focus on an individual collapse—the Classic Maya—and two aspire to a broader treatment. They are unequally successful in their outcomes.     

南非中国新移民面临的困境及其原因探析

本文在实证调查基础上,梳理了南非中国新移民面临的经济和社会问题,并在此基础上探讨了形成这种困境的内外部原因。从表面看来,中国新移民面临的问题直接来自于民族聚集区经济模式下的困境,民族聚集区经济强化了南非中国新移民的自我认同和族群边界,助长了他们普遍具有的＂过客＂心态,也使得他们逐渐面临众多经济、社会问题。然而,实质上,中国新移民的困境也与南非的社会政策大环境息息相关。南非《劳工法》对劳工的过度保护以及社会治安问题、警察腐败等社会大环境,成为中国新移民面临困境的外部原因。     

行政腐败成因探微——官僚制范式与公共选择范式之比较

随着社会的不断发展,腐败现象及其成因日趋多样化和复杂化。本文以介绍探究腐败成因的官僚制范式和公共选择范式为重点,阐述了官僚制范式和公共选择范式的主要内容及其相关理论,并就两种范式的优缺点进行了比较研究。     

Notes on contributors

Australian governments are facing some confusion about public sector accountability. This paper argues that the opaque nature of accountability which persists is the result of changes being wrought, separately and together, by a number of macro factors of which public sector reform and corruption inquiries are but two. This explanation is developed by an examination of some fifteen specific issues which are symptomatic of the lack of transparency in Australian public sector accountability, and simultaneously, contribute to it. The paper contends that clarity is likely to emerge only slowly as gaps and anomalies are recognised and gradually remedied. The paper seeks to contribute to the process by offering a definition of accountability and an outline of several different types of accountability frameworks now operating in Australian governments.     

Potential Solutions to Public Deliberation Problems: Structured Deliberations and Polarization Cascades

Some deliberative theorists advocate for increased public participation to improve the health and vitality of democracy, but skeptics warn that public deliberation may fall prey to multiple decision-making pathologies. We describe a research program based on structured public deliberations about science and technology policies that was designed to explore the validity of critics' worst fears. In this research, we specifically test the complaint that group deliberations often bias toward the original majority preferences because of cognitive and affective errors in decision making, such as deference to the numerical majority opinion held within a group. Our results, based on data collected from a set of small-group public deliberations about nanotechnology, offer weak support to the polarization hypothesis. We explain this finding as the likely consequence of manipulating two key variables of deliberations: task facilitation and the quality of the argument pool. As a result, we argue that it is possible to structure public deliberations about policy to mitigate known decision-making problems. We conclude by also warning scholars of the dangers in assuming that opinion change consistent with polarization effects is inherently the result of undesirable decision-making qualities.