TY - JOUR
T1 - Political corruption and partisan engagement
T2 - Evidence from Brazil
AU - Winters, Matthew S.
AU - Weitz-Shapiro, Rebecca
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2015/4
Y1 - 2015/4
N2 - In long-standing democracies, the partisan attachments of most citizens are stable and not responsive to short-term political events. Recent studies from younger democracies, however, suggest that partisanship may be more malleable in these contexts. In this paper we develop hypotheses about how political corruption might affect voter attachment to the parties of corrupt officials or to the party system as a whole. Using data from an original survey experiment in Brazil, we show that prompts about political corruption shift patterns of partisan attachment for highly educated respondents – specifically, that corruption associated with one political party reduces nonpartisanship and significantly increases identification with other political parties. In contrast, we find that information on corruption has no consistent measurable effect on partisanship for less educated respondents. We conclude by discussing the implications of malleable partisanship for democratic accountability.
AB - In long-standing democracies, the partisan attachments of most citizens are stable and not responsive to short-term political events. Recent studies from younger democracies, however, suggest that partisanship may be more malleable in these contexts. In this paper we develop hypotheses about how political corruption might affect voter attachment to the parties of corrupt officials or to the party system as a whole. Using data from an original survey experiment in Brazil, we show that prompts about political corruption shift patterns of partisan attachment for highly educated respondents – specifically, that corruption associated with one political party reduces nonpartisanship and significantly increases identification with other political parties. In contrast, we find that information on corruption has no consistent measurable effect on partisanship for less educated respondents. We conclude by discussing the implications of malleable partisanship for democratic accountability.
KW - Brazil
KW - Corruption
KW - Partisanship
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U2 - 10.1177/1866802x1500700102
DO - 10.1177/1866802x1500700102
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84962730593
SN - 1866-802X
VL - 7
SP - 45
EP - 81
JO - Journal of Politics in Latin America
JF - Journal of Politics in Latin America
IS - 1
ER -