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Getting to Sweden, Part I: War and Malfeasance, 1720–1850
Author(s) -
Teorell Jan,
Rothstein Bo
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9477.12047
Subject(s) - bureaucracy , language change , political science , state (computer science) , transition (genetics) , political economy , period (music) , law , public administration , economic history , sociology , history , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , algorithm , politics , computer science , acoustics , gene , art , literature
How and why some countries were able to make the historical transition from a patrimonial, nepotistic and corrupt bureaucracy to a clean, Weberian and professionalised one is still an under‐studied topic in the literature on corruption. This article presents original data on such a transition in the case of Sweden, drawing on court hearings of cases of malfeasance among public officials in the period 1720–1850. It is argued, theoretically, that an important explanation for why the Swedish bureaucracy was able to break out of the collective action trap of corruption relates to C harles T illy's theory of the importance of war for state‐making. Rather than viewing war‐making in itself as a driver of change, however, this article pinpoints the importance of having lost a significant war – in the Swedish case, the war against Russia in 1808–9 – and the constitutional and regime changes this set in motion. Drawing on comparative data on malfeasance, the similarities in this regard between the S wedish and D anish cases are highlighted.