Populism and Corruption Management

The relationship between corruption and populism is complicated (Mendilow and Phélippeau 2021; Kossow 2019). If corruption is high in a country, populist parties tend to gain more electoral support (Engler 2016; Foresta, 2020; Snegovaya and Petrova 2020) by simply pointing out how elites are corrupt and acting against the people (Mudde 2004; Mungiu-Pippidi, 2018; Csehi, 2019). Yet, the level of corruption increases when populists come to power (Kostadinova 2023; Transparency International 2022; Englar 2020; Adam 2019). While we already know about the structural factors related to institutional occupation (Gryzmala-Busse, 2019; Soyaltin-Colella 2020) and the redistributive policies (Kubbe and Harel-Fisher 2021; Vukovic 2020; Adam 2019) to explain how populist governments sheltered their regime from any major backlash, we know relatively little about the (discursive) strategies and tactics employed by political leaders to deal with corruption scandals that plague their administrations. This workshop seeks to fill this theoretical and empirical gap by exploring populist corruption talk (Boatright 2020) and innovative tactics to manage corruption (see Guriev and Treisman 2022). The workshop aims to bring together cutting-edge research on corruption, populism, and political propaganda and communication from different parts of the world and contribute to two major themes. First, the workshop will delve into supply-side factors, examining how populist leaders strategically address corruption scandals to ensure the survival of their regimes. Second, it will explore demand-side factors, evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies in persuading the public of their leaders' integrity. The workshop welcomes country papers as well as comparative analyses.

Ádám, Z. (2019) Explaining Orbán: A Political Transaction Cost Theory of Authoritarian Populism, Problems of Post-Communism, 66(6), 385-401, DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2019.1643249 Boatright, R. G. (2020), “Populist Corruption Talk, and Some Alternatives”, in Majia Nadesan and Amit Ron (eds.), Mapping Populism: A Guide to Understanding and Studying Populism (New York: Routledge), pp. 176–184 Csehi, R.(2019) Neither episodic nor destined to failure? The endurance of Hungarian populism after 2010, Democratization, 26 (6),1011-1027 DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2019.1590814 Engler, S. (2020) “Fighting corruption” or “fighting the corrupt elite”? Politicizing corruption within and beyond the populist divide, Democratization, 27(4), 643-661, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2020.1713106 Engler, S. (2016). Corruption and Electoral Support for New Political Parties in Central and Eastern Europe. West European Politics 39(2), 278-304. DOI: 10.1080/01402382.2015.1084127 Foresta, A.(2020) The rise of populist parties in the aftermath of a massive corruption scandal. Public Choice 184, 289–306 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-020-00826-1 Grzymala-Busse, A. (2019) “How Populists Rule: The Consequences for Democratic Governance.” Polity 51 (4), 707–717 DOIi:10.1086/705570 Guriyev, S. and Treisman, D. (2022) Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century, Princeton University Press Kossow, N. (2019) Populism and corruption Transparency International Anti-Corruption Helpdesk Answer Kostadinova T. (2023): Do populist governments reduce corruption? East European Politics, DOI: 10.1080/21599165.2023.2185226 Kubbe, I and Harel-Fisher, E. (2021) Populism and corruption in Israel - from a clientelist point of view. In Populism and Corruption edited by Edited by Jonathan Mendilow and Éric Phélippeau, Elgaronline Publications (pp. 108–128) https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839109676 Mendilow; J. and Phélippeau,E. (2021) Populism and Corruption, Elgaronline Publications https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839109676 Mudde, C. (2004). The populist Zeitgeist. Government and opposition, 39(4), 541–563. Mungiu-Pippidi, A. (2018). “Explaining Eastern Europe: Romania’s Italian-Style Anticorruption Populism”. Journal of Democracy, 29(3): 104-16. Snegovaya, M. and Petrova, T. (2021) From Democratization to Populism: Explaining the rise and resilience of populism in Central Europe. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3769508 Soyaltin-Colella, (2022) How to capture the judiciary under the guise of EU-led reforms: domestic strategies of resistance and erosion of rule of law in Turkey, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 22 (3), 441-462 de Vreese, C. H., Esser, F., Aalberg, T., Reinemann, C., & Stanyer, J. (2018). Populism as an expression of political communication content and style: A new perspective. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 23(4), 423–438 Vuković, V. (2020) Corruption and re-election: how much can politicians steal before getting punished?, Journal of Comparative Economics,48(1), 124-143,

1: Why and how does populism remain resilient in countries with high (even rising) levels of corruption?
2: How do populists manage corruption scandals, manipulate data, spin the agenda and cultivate an image of pureness?
3: Through which innovative ways do populists address corruption? Which frames /narratives do they use?
4: How does “pure people” and the “corrupt elite” dichotomy of the populism relevant in populist corruption talk?
5: To what extent and how do populists convince the people about their pureness?

Title	Details
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Fighting corruption, fighting populism: the case of Spain	View Paper Details
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Populism and corruption management- a theoretical framework	View Paper Details
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