Effect of District Magnitude on Electoral Corruption under a Block Vote System: The Case of Thailand

Q1 Arts and Humanities

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review Pub Date : 2011-01-19 DOI:10.3860/APSSR.V10I2.1901

Napisa Waitoolkiat

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Abstract

What causes corruption? Most literature on corruption take into account the role of culture and socio-economic development though few studies have not even begun to look for another explanation such as institutions in explaining this corruption menace. Within institutionalist literature, there are generally two strands which center upon two different concepts in explaining corruption - accountability and personal vote. Yet, the theoretical framework in this study will rely exclusively on the concept of personal voting since it would be more compatible with the nature of research used in this study - within country analysis. By exploring Thailand's three general elections for the lower house (1992, 1995, 2007) with the same type of electoral rules- block vote, the study aims to examine the impact of district magnitude (elements of electoral rules: ballot structure, district magnitude, electoral formulas) as a key determinant of the level of corruption. The effect of district magnitude on corruption will be analyzed against the backdrop of the block vote system controlling for year and region. Based upon the personal vote argument, the study contends that in the context of block vote, large district magnitude would put more pressure on a candidate to distinguish himself/ herself from his/her party’s teammates as well as candidates from different parties, which in turn provide the likelihood for the use of corruption as one of their electoral strategies. The findings from this study show that the levels of corruption at a nationwide level for all three years are relatively the same. More importantly, the study found that district magnitude is related with corruption, that is, a large district magnitude is associated with a greater degree of corruption. Finally, the study shows that region is strongly associated with the level of corruption - highest in the Northeast and lowest in the South and in Bangkok. Keywords: Thailand; electoral corruption; personal vote; candidate-centered electoral rules; block vote; district magnitude DOI: 10.3860/apssr.v10i2.1901 Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 10:2 (2010), pp. 43-58

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选区大小对分组投票制度下选举腐败的影响:以泰国为例

是什么导致了腐败?大多数关于腐败的文献都考虑到了文化和社会经济发展的作用，尽管很少有研究甚至没有开始寻找另一种解释，比如解释腐败威胁的制度。在制度主义文献中，通常有两股围绕着两个不同的概念来解释腐败——问责制和个人投票。然而，本研究的理论框架将完全依赖于个人投票的概念，因为它将更符合本研究中使用的研究性质-国家内部分析。通过探讨泰国的三次下议院大选(1992年、1995年、2007年)，这些选举规则都是相同类型的否决投票，本研究旨在检验地区规模(选举规则的要素:选票结构、地区规模、选举公式)作为腐败程度的关键决定因素的影响。本文将分析地区规模对腐败的影响，并以年份和地区为背景进行分组投票制度的控制。基于个人投票的观点，本研究认为，在集体投票的背景下，大的选区规模会给候选人带来更大的压力，使其与党内队友以及不同政党的候选人区分开来，这反过来又为他们利用腐败作为选举策略之一提供了可能性。这项研究的结果表明，三年来全国范围内的腐败程度相对相同。更重要的是，研究发现，地区规模与腐败相关，即地区规模越大，腐败程度越高。最后，该研究表明，地区与腐败程度密切相关——东北部最高，南部和曼谷最低。关键词:泰国;选举腐败;个人投票;以候选人为中心的选举规则;集团投票;DOI: 10.3860/apssr.v10i2.1901亚太社会科学评论10:2 (2010)，pp. 43-58

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来源期刊

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review Arts and Humanities-History

CiteScore

1.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Asia-Pacific Social Science Review (APSSR) is an internationally refereed journal published biannually (June and December) by De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. It aims to be a leading venue for authors seeking to share their data and perspectives on compelling and emerging topics in the social sciences with, and to create an impact on, the region’s communities of academics, researchers, students, civil society, policymakers, development specialists, among others. Topics related to or with implications for the region that are pursued employing sound methodologies and comparative, and inter, multi and transdisciplinary approaches are of particular interest.