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The Eroding Effect of Corruption on System Support in S weden
Author(s) -
Linde Jonas,
Erlingsson Gissur Ó
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/gove.12004
Subject(s) - language change , legitimacy , democracy , affect (linguistics) , political science , perception , perspective (graphical) , political economy , development economics , public administration , sociology , economics , law , psychology , politics , art , literature , communication , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science
S weden is consistently found at the top in international indices of corruption. In recent years, however, several instances of corruption have been exposed, and surveys show that large shares of S wedish citizens harbor perceptions that public corruption is widespread. Drawing on recent surveys, two questions are asked. First, to what extent do S wedish citizens believe that corruption constitutes a serious problem? Second, how do citizens' evaluations of the extent of public corruption affect support for the democratic system? Approaching the issue from a comparative N ordic perspective, the data indicate that S wedes are considerably more prone to believe that politicians and public officials are corrupt than their N ordic counterparts. The analysis also suggests that such perceptions constitute an important determinant of support for the democratic system. Thus, even in a least likely case of corruption, such as S weden, growing concerns about corruption has a potential to affect democratic legitimacy negatively.