Why it’s tough to stop the abuse of governmental resources for political purposes
There have been scandals in many advanced democracies about politicians’ abuse of governmental resources for party-political purposes. But can anything be done about this? In the current issue of Governance, Nicole Bolleyer and Anika Gaujaprovide a framework for thinking about the problem, and reasons for skepticism about the possibility of effective regulation. “Institutional functions cannot be clearly separated from party-political functions in parliamentary systems,” they argue. “The much observed increasing regulation of party actors might be less constraining for them in practice than is commonly assumed.” Read the article.