Corrupting politicians : evidence from Kenya
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Although voters dislike politician corruption, the misuse of public funds by elected officials remains rampant in emerging democracies. This dissertation investigates why politician corruption persists in these democracies through the lens of Kenyan politics. It uses politician interview data, survey data, audit data, and administrative data to develop three main findings. First, high levels of voter poverty and low levels of voter information create an environment of voter pessimism that requires politicians to adopt a less honest representational style in order to cater to constituent demands. Second, although voters dislike politician corruption, a pessimistic electorate expects for politicians to provide the safety net that the public sector fails to provide through charitable assistance. Third, voter pessimism creates apathy towards corruption, and the electorate does not reward candidates for being clean. Together, the findings explain why politician corruption is pervasive in new democracies, and illustrates how voter pessimism enables dishonest politicians to thrive at the expense of honest ones.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Zhang, Kelly |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Laitin, David D |
| Degree supervisor | Miguel, Edward |
| Thesis advisor | Laitin, David D |
| Thesis advisor | Miguel, Edward |
| Thesis advisor | Finan, Frederico |
| Thesis advisor | Fiorina, Morris P |
| Thesis advisor | Rodden, Jonathan |
| Degree committee member | Finan, Frederico |
| Degree committee member | Fiorina, Morris P |
| Degree committee member | Rodden, Jonathan |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Political Science. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Kelly Zhang. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Political Science. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Kelly Wang Zhang
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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