Recent advisory reports on the Dutch parliamentary system, public scrutiny, and parliamentary upheaval following transgressive behaviour by the old speaker of parliament have drawn attention to the...Show moreRecent advisory reports on the Dutch parliamentary system, public scrutiny, and parliamentary upheaval following transgressive behaviour by the old speaker of parliament have drawn attention to the functioning of parliamentary administrations. The support staff of parliaments is a scarcely covered topic in political science. In a new body of literature, this article is only the second to examine parliamentary staff size quantitatively. It fundamentally extends the scope of previous research from western democracies to a much broader population of parliaments. Drawing on both a functionalist and an institutionalist framework, it hypothesises that population size, population non-linearity, clientelism, parliamentary competition, an interaction between clientelism and parliamentary competition, parliamentary culture, and institutional isomorphism influence the number of institutional and committee staff in parliaments. This research uses house-level data from 161 countries over ten years and employs multilevel analysis to test these hypotheses. It finds strong support that population size, population size non-linearity, and institutional isomorphism influence staff size, while it finds mixed support for parliamentary competition as a predictor of staff size. There was no support for parliamentary culture, clientelism, and the clientelism-competition interaction hypotheses. Additionally, previously thought insignificant predictors of staff size, such as assembly size and parliamentary powers, were, in fact, significant. This article is the first to look at parliamentary administrations, which are vital to the functioning of primary democratic institutions, from a global perspective. Due to the mixed results, it calls for more extensive research on different types of staff, further disentangling of the mechanisms posited, and further data collection to progress understanding of this veiled political and administrative institution.Show less
Uruguay‘s favourable position on the Corruption Index is one which has baffled many scholars in the region. While many attempt to explain Uruguay‘s success by looking at specific policies and...Show moreUruguay‘s favourable position on the Corruption Index is one which has baffled many scholars in the region. While many attempt to explain Uruguay‘s success by looking at specific policies and programmes that have been implemented in the last two decades, this paper attempts to explain the low corruption levels by analysing the shift in the Uruguayan political structure. The long drawn out transformation, from a state riddled with clientelistic-networks towards a programmatic political spectrum, illustrates that the country has improved its levels of universalism and that the manner parties compete for votes has drastically changed. This paper argues that the shift towards programmatic politics is due to a number of events that took place after the Military Authoritarian-Regime. The dissatisfaction with the traditional parties, after the fall of the authoritarian state, allowed for the left-wing parties to surge. The increase in electoral strength of the left meant the introduction of a third actor within the political realm. This new actor broke the equilibrium of co-participation that the traditional parties had been experiencing for a prolonged time. The disruption of this equilibrium meant that the traditional parties now had to change the manner for competing for votes, from a clientelistic and particularistic manner towards a programmatic and universalistic approach. Nevertheless, institutional reforms together with the decentralization of power ensued in the 1990s further reducing corruption levels. We come to the conclusion that in order to grasp the success of Uruguay concerning its corruption levels, one has to look at the broader political shift, as the policy and programmes that have been implemented in the last two decades are nothing but a bi-product of said transformation.Show less
This thesis will focus on the Piquetero movement as pioneers when it comes to the co-optation of a social movement into the governmental sphere. It analyzes the historical development of the...Show moreThis thesis will focus on the Piquetero movement as pioneers when it comes to the co-optation of a social movement into the governmental sphere. It analyzes the historical development of the movement between 1996 and 2016 and with that, focuses on the concepts of clientelism and patronage politics. Finally, it will conclude on the co-optation of the movement with regard to the reachability of their goals.Show less
