Progress has been made in recent decades – mainly related to media cases or international warnings – but the mechanisms regulating and monitoring ethics and political integrity in Portugal are still inconsistent and fragmented. This is the conclusion of the study Ethics and integrity in politics: perceptions, control and impact, coordinated by Luís de Sousa and Susana Coroado (researchers at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon) and published this Monday by Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS).
Despite the efforts that have been made to try and improve political class ethics – defined as something “complex and multidimensional” due to different perceptions – the mechanisms that regulate it are not enough. According to Luís de Sousa, “the results of the entire regulatory arsenal set up in this area, especially since the 90s, are very scarce”, something that can be for several reasons: “Sometimes the design of the laws involves inconsistencies, often with flaws and room for dubious interpretations, and therefore effective application is a problem. It also happens that the design of the bodies that apply these laws is also not better”, and uses an example: the Entity of Political Accounts and Finance that works “in an abnormal way” in the Constitutional Court corrected how a Transparency entity was created that works in exactly the same way,” adds Susana Coroado. “There is a clear lack of political will,” says Luís de Sousa.
However, the conclusions of the study do not stop there. According to the group of five authors – in addition to the two coordinators – there are other factors to consider, especially with regard to corruption, a “chameleon in the eyes of public opinion”, as “ethical judgments differ between individuals, in space and time”. Yet, compared to civilians, there is more tolerance from the elites in these cases. However, the researchers emphasize one peculiarity: Politicians who are corrupt and break the law, but who show that they have ‘done a job’ end up enjoying more tolerance in the eyes of the public eye than those who show no results. However, politicians are less lenient in condemning these cases, regardless of the results left in the mandates.
To obtain all these perspectives, two sources were used, as explained in the methodological note. On the one hand, the EPOCA dataset on corruption and crisis was used, “in which a representative sample of 1020 citizens between 18 and 75 years old in Portugal was interviewed face-to-face”, from December 2020 to April 2021. The second source, by the researchers considered the “central part” of the study, a set of answers was obtained through an online questionnaire applied to deputies from the previous legislature (with a response rate of 28.7%, or 66 out of 230) and to mayors and municipal meetings (55 of 616, or 8.9% responded) in office between October 2020 and February 2021.
Essentially, these approaches allowed “two different perspectives on politics, one from the outside in and the other from the inside out”. According to Luís de Sousa, yes “innovative, because there are not many studies, even at the international level, that make these contradictions in ethics in politics between elites and people. Others used data that was a bit outdated, which is not the case here”as the two surveys were applied simultaneously, albeit with some restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The study co-ordinator adds another innovative aspect: the fact that when applying the questionnaires, the researchers tested some measures of self-regulation of ethics in politics with the two audiences, something that was achieved through “an experimental investigation of measures of regulation in to add”. and its admissibility.” “It made it possible to see the preferences of citizens and elected officials regarding a limited but symbolic set of measures,” he adds, without however specifying which ones were tested.
On a national level, defends Susana Coroado, “the Portuguese government should have a code of conduct to regulate different situations, not just about receiving benefits. There are rules of conduct that need to be typed, such as behavior on social networks or connections with government officials. The Portuguese code is very limited and focuses a lot on favorsbecause it arose after the case Galp port [em 2016, após três secretários de Estado terem recebido bilhetes para ir ver jogos da seleção portuguesa a França aquando do Europeu]but must be extended”.
Populism has advantages
The summary of the study contains a caveat: all results are “exploratory”. Still, the researchers state that all of the collected perceptions “support the understanding that episodes of misconduct in the exercise of political office undermine political confidence,” something that “becomes attractive to individuals with low ethical standards.”
Populism is on the rise. “This is one of the great dramas of this business,” Luís de Sousa believes, adding: “What we have seen historically is an evolution of politics that is very much based on personal virtues, but even the founders of democracy eventually committed their mistakes and the impact of this lack of strictness was vastly underestimated, which inevitably led to the questioning of democracies that are now being paid for.”
Some conclusions of the research
Reputation
According to the researchers, “reputational damage inflicted on a political institution can discredit it in the long run, seriously undermining the credibility of the democratic regime itself with the citizens.” “Trust in institutions and political actors is a foundation of democratic legitimacy and an essential ingredient to ensure the success of a wide range of public policies,” they stress.
favor exchange
The study also concludes that today “citizens are more intransigent with practices such as exchanging favors or disrupting political and regulatory processes in favor of economic interests”. These cases contribute more to dissatisfaction with the functioning of the democratic system than to corruption crimes themselves, the researchers point out.
receptivity
Despite some cases that damaged their public image, “Portuguese politicians seem receptive to improving the self-regulation of political ethics”. This, the study says, could bring benefits, as “voters appear willing to electorally reward parties’ efforts in this “effective way” to restore trust and promote transparency in public offices.
Definition
But how do you define corruption? The study – a comparison between the elites and public opinion – points out several differences: “If we add words around sectors of activity, it is clear that citizens associate corruption with politics and the respective actors, processes and institutions. Mention also the private sector. , especially the financial and banking sector, and express some concern about fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, seem to view these schemes as the result of public-private collusion, poor state supervision of economic activities, clientelism and political protectionism” . The Portuguese define corruption in their own words, essentially seeing it “as a crime or illegality, in the form of theft, embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power. To a lesser extent, corruption, more broadly, is also understood as dishonesty, fraud or something immoral”. Both politicians and citizens believe that corruption undermines the quality of democracy, the authors conclude.
Source: DN
