Societal Accountability and Grand Corruption: How Institutions Shape Citizens’ Efforts to Shape Institutions

Abstract

That civil society activism can strengthen accountability and limit government corruption is theoretically compelling and popular in policy circles. Whether civic engagement can limit grand corruption, and if so in what types of settings, remains an open question. This paper presents the first large-N study of societal accountability with respect to grand corruption. Using objective indicators of procurement corruption from 173 EU regions, the study finds that civil society strength is associated with lower levels of corruption but that the association is not monotonic. Civil society strength seems to constrain procurement corruption where accountability conditions are the least favorable. Where accountability conditions are well-functioning, we find no evidence that societal accountability constrains corruption. The findings help to adjudicate between competing expectations from research on horizontal and societal accountability. Moreover, they confirm that societal accountability can complement horizontal accountability where institutional conditions function sub-optimally, even limiting grand corruption.