Does Changing Electoral Systems Affect (Corrupt) Particularistic Exchanges? Evidence from the Italian Case

Abstract

The literature on forms of particularism explores the impact of institutional variables on what is denoted, alternatively, as constituency service, pork-barrel politics, or corruption. Attention has mostly been given to electoral systems, but other institutional provisions and political factors, such as party strength, are also relevant. The present contribution investigates the likely effects of electoral reforms on corruption control and seeks confirmation of the hypothesis that single member plurality (even within mixed member) systems are conducive to a type of particularism that might help fight corruption, taking Italy as a case. We test the impact of two electoral reforms and three electoral systems enacted in Italy between 1996 and 2016, whose primary aim was bolstering enfeebled party leaderships and facilitating the formation of durable governments, and we compare the effort at corruption control of the Italian governments born under these different electoral systems with those of other European democracies.

Corruption Control in the Developed World

“…Need corruption, moreover, seems to mostly involve women who often carry the burden of caring for the young, the sick and the elderly in the family and are, therefore, particularly sensitive to the urgency of having access to public services which may depend on someone's help in 'cutting the queue. ' Piattoni and Giglioli (2020) similarly suggest that some forms of particularism, which contemplate an exchange between candidates and sectional interests or entire electoral constituencies, may be less serious corruptions of democracy than exchanges that involve individual voters or that imply the exchange of money for selective benefits. They argue that the provision of constituency-level public goods may in fact help wean democracies from graver forms of particularistic exchanges.…”