Will Transparency Curb Corruption? Electoral Mobilization in Russia, Sweden and Italy

Transparency reforms are promoted as a crucial reform to enhance accountability and curb corruption. Transparency is predicted to deter corruption in part by enhancing citizens’ possibility and willingness to monitor, scrutinize and act to hold public office holders into account. Although the link between transparency and accountability is often implied, recent studies suggest that increasing transparency in highly corrupt contexts may not always be conducive to the electoral punishment of corrupt politicians. Using the logic of collective action theory, this paper suggests that the level of corruption may condition the effect of transparency on citizens engagement through two channels in particular: a) citizens expectation on whether or not fellow citizens will also engage in the fight against corruption, thereby making engagement more effective and less risky and b) citizens expectations on government responsiveness. Newly collected data from survey experiments conducted in three societies that differ in levels of corruption and democratic traditions-Italy, Russia and Sweden-are used to test these claims.