Jenny De Fine Licht
Biographic Data
| ID | 4377909 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jenny De Fine Licht |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jenny De Fine |
| FAMILY NAME | Licht |
| SIGNATURE | LICHT J F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2102-8945 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 262 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Leaking season: An analysis of the timing of media disclosures from party insiders in Sweden 2010-2024
Why is compromising information about misconduct in political parties leaked to the media by party insiders? Drawing on previous research and interviews with political and investigative journalists, we hypothesize that such media disclosures are made with political intent and thus more likely when (1) party list nominations take place and (2) when parties are losing popular support. Through an analysis of 349 newspaper articles of misconduct in p…
Treading water or jumping off the trampoline? How local authorities navigate decisions on the location of public services
One of the most pressing challenges for contemporary local governments is how to provide public services of sufficient quality when resources are scarce. This is particularly acute in peripheral or rural areas facing depopulation, where downsizing or closing public service units is often the only viable option. While much research has focused on the citizens negatively affected by such cuts, this study examines the perspective of decision-makers …
Misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties: A party loyalty dilemma
What is the nature of misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties? While there is a large literature on whistleblowing in other organisational settings, we are yet to understand how these accountability processes work in parties. Using a survey of 1165 Swedish politicians, we show that misconduct in parties primarily relates to serious structural organisational problems and inappropriate personal conduct. Witnessed misconduct is reported a…
Walking a mile in their shoes —How local politicians reason about trade-off decisions
When deliberative mini‐publics’ outcomes and political decisions clash: Examining how responsive communication influences legitimacy perceptions
This article explores how citizens’ legitimacy perceptions are affected when decision makers deviate from the recommendations of a deliberative mini‐public (DMP), and what can be done to mitigate negative consequences. The results of a preregistered vignette experiment in Belgium (N = 2659) support our two main expectations. First, citizens’ legitimacy perceptions decrease when politicians do not follow the outcome of a DMP. Second, when politici…
Beyond auditor and auditee: Exploring the governance of performance in eldercare
Auditing is a key tool for governing performance. Informed by the ‘audit trail logic’ this article takes a micro-perspective on auditing in which the auditees play an active role. Using the case of eldercare, it explores what actors do as they take part in audits and how they make sense of the underlying logic. Findings reveal that the roles of auditor and auditee may not only shift between audits, but also blur during audit activities. Therefore…
It’s Not Over When It’s Over”―Post-Decision Arrangements and Empirical Legitimacy
A chronic problem for democratic governments is generating legitimacy for policy decisions that go against substantial groups of citizens’ legitimate interests. The primary means of achieving this aim involve the arrangements through which policy decisions are made. Whereas research in the field has tended to focus on the arrangements leading up to a decision, this paper draws attention to developments after a formal policy decision has been made…
Collaborative gaming: When principals and agents agree to game the system
This paper presents a previously unexplored type of gaming of performance data, collaborative gaming, where the performance measurement system incentivizes the executive and an agency to game collaboratively. The paper shows how overlapping incentives between government departments and agencies to present successful implementation of programs can drive collaboration to modify performance targets and/or performance measurements. The argument is il…
Artificial intelligence, transparency, and public decision-making: Why explanations are key when trying to produce perceived legitimacy
The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for making decisions in public affairs has sparked a lively debate on the benefits and potential harms of self-learning technologies, ranging from the hopes of fully informed and objectively taken decisions to fear for the destruction of mankind. To prevent the negative outcomes and to achieve accountable systems, many have argued that we need to open up the “black box” of AI decision-making and …
Lights on the shadows of public procurement: Transparency as an antidote to corruption
The increased focus on marketizing mechanisms and contracting‐out operations following the New Public Management reform agenda has sparked a debate on whether the close interactions between public and private actors might drive corruption in the public sector. The main response to those worries has been increased transparency, but so far empirical evidence of its efficiency remains scant and mixed. This article argues that the beneficial effects …
Preparing political science students for a non-academic career: Experiences from a novel course module
Higher education is increasingly expected not only to provide students with disciplinary knowledge and skills but also to prepare them for a future career. As political science is a diverse discipline and does not train students for a certain profession, its students often feel uncertain of the career paths available to them and how their expertise can be used in a future career. In this article, we present and discuss the course ‘The Professiona…
How do supreme audit institutions manage their autonomy and impact? A comparative analysis
Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) are gradually becoming important agents of public management reform; a development raising issues of autonomy and potential capture by auditees as well as by the political system. Drawing on exploratory case studies of the rules and strategies of four high-performing SAIs – those of Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden – the article shows that SAIs have different approaches to the balance between autonomy an…
Same Considerations, Different Decisions: Motivations for Split‐ticket Voting among Swedish Feminist Initiative Supporters
This article explores why supporters of small, non‐established parties choose to vote for different parties in the elections to the European Parliament (EP) and elections to the national parliament. It uses individual‐level data with open‐ended questions from an online survey on supporters of Feminist Initiative (Fi) – a comparatively small and new Swedish feminist party – to map voters’ own motivations for split‐ticket voting in the 2014 electio…
Secrecy and Publicity in Votes and Debates
In the spirit of Jeremy Bentham's Political Tactics, this volume offers the first comprehensive discussion of the effects of secrecy and publicity on debates and votes in committees and assemblies. The contributors - sociologists, political scientists, historians, legal scholars - consider the micro-technology of voting (the devil is in the detail), the historical relations between the secret ballot and universal suffrage, the use and abolition o…
Policy Area as a Potential Moderator of Transparency Effects: An Experiment
Building on the counterintuitive findings of recent empirical studies that transparency in political decision making may have a negative effect on public legitimacy beliefs, this article suggests that transparency has different effects depending on the policy area. Specifically, it argues that transparency is less effective in policy decisions that involve trade‐offs related to questions of human life and death or well‐being. Using an experiment …
When Does Transparency Generate Legitimacy? Experimenting on a Context‐Bound Relationship
We analyze the main rationale for public administrations and political institutions for supplying transparency, namely, that it generates legitimacy for these institutions. First, we discuss different theories of decision making from which plausible causal mechanisms that may drive a link between transparency and legitimacy may be derived. We find that the common notion of a straightforward positive correlation is naïve and that transparency refo…
Transparency actually: How Transparency Affects Public Perceptions of Political Decision-Making
Building on a widely held account of transparency as integral to legitimate and successful governance, this article addresses the question of how transparency in decision-making can influence public perceptions of political decision-making. An original experiment with 1099 participants shows that people who perceive political decision-making to be transparent judge the degree of procedural fairness highly and are more willing to accept the final …
Do We Really Want to Know? The Potentially Negative Effect of Transparency in Decision Making on Perceived Legitimacy
Building on the notion of transparency as a strong democratic value and theories of procedural justice, this article reports an explorative experimental test whether transparency in decision making may lead to increased perceived legitimacy in terms of decision acceptance and trust. This is done in a context of difficult decisions of high importance for citizens – namely priority setting in public health care. An experiment was designed in which …
When Does Transparency Generate Legitimacy? Experimenting on a Context‐Bound Relationship
We analyze the main rationale for public administrations and political institutions for supplying transparency, namely, that it generates legitimacy for these institutions. First, we discuss different theories of decision making from which plausible causal mechanisms that may drive a link between transparency and legitimacy may be derived. We find that the common notion of a straightforward positive correlation is naïve and that transparency refo…
Do We Really Want to Know? The Potentially Negative Effect of Transparency in Decision Making on Perceived Legitimacy
Building on the notion of transparency as a strong democratic value and theories of procedural justice, this article reports an explorative experimental test whether transparency in decision making may lead to increased perceived legitimacy in terms of decision acceptance and trust. This is done in a context of difficult decisions of high importance for citizens – namely priority setting in public health care. An experiment was designed in which …
Lights on the shadows of public procurement: Transparency as an antidote to corruption
The increased focus on marketizing mechanisms and contracting‐out operations following the New Public Management reform agenda has sparked a debate on whether the close interactions between public and private actors might drive corruption in the public sector. The main response to those worries has been increased transparency, but so far empirical evidence of its efficiency remains scant and mixed. This article argues that the beneficial effects …
Transparency actually: How Transparency Affects Public Perceptions of Political Decision-Making
Building on a widely held account of transparency as integral to legitimate and successful governance, this article addresses the question of how transparency in decision-making can influence public perceptions of political decision-making. An original experiment with 1099 participants shows that people who perceive political decision-making to be transparent judge the degree of procedural fairness highly and are more willing to accept the final …
It’s Not Over When It’s Over”―Post-Decision Arrangements and Empirical Legitimacy
A chronic problem for democratic governments is generating legitimacy for policy decisions that go against substantial groups of citizens’ legitimate interests. The primary means of achieving this aim involve the arrangements through which policy decisions are made. Whereas research in the field has tended to focus on the arrangements leading up to a decision, this paper draws attention to developments after a formal policy decision has been made…
How do supreme audit institutions manage their autonomy and impact? A comparative analysis
Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) are gradually becoming important agents of public management reform; a development raising issues of autonomy and potential capture by auditees as well as by the political system. Drawing on exploratory case studies of the rules and strategies of four high-performing SAIs – those of Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden – the article shows that SAIs have different approaches to the balance between autonomy an…
Preparing political science students for a non-academic career: Experiences from a novel course module
Higher education is increasingly expected not only to provide students with disciplinary knowledge and skills but also to prepare them for a future career. As political science is a diverse discipline and does not train students for a certain profession, its students often feel uncertain of the career paths available to them and how their expertise can be used in a future career. In this article, we present and discuss the course ‘The Professiona…
When deliberative mini‐publics’ outcomes and political decisions clash: Examining how responsive communication influences legitimacy perceptions
This article explores how citizens’ legitimacy perceptions are affected when decision makers deviate from the recommendations of a deliberative mini‐public (DMP), and what can be done to mitigate negative consequences. The results of a preregistered vignette experiment in Belgium (N = 2659) support our two main expectations. First, citizens’ legitimacy perceptions decrease when politicians do not follow the outcome of a DMP. Second, when politici…
Misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties: A party loyalty dilemma
What is the nature of misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties? While there is a large literature on whistleblowing in other organisational settings, we are yet to understand how these accountability processes work in parties. Using a survey of 1165 Swedish politicians, we show that misconduct in parties primarily relates to serious structural organisational problems and inappropriate personal conduct. Witnessed misconduct is reported a…
Walking a mile in their shoes —How local politicians reason about trade-off decisions
Collaborative gaming: When principals and agents agree to game the system
This paper presents a previously unexplored type of gaming of performance data, collaborative gaming, where the performance measurement system incentivizes the executive and an agency to game collaboratively. The paper shows how overlapping incentives between government departments and agencies to present successful implementation of programs can drive collaboration to modify performance targets and/or performance measurements. The argument is il…
Same Considerations, Different Decisions: Motivations for Split‐ticket Voting among Swedish Feminist Initiative Supporters
This article explores why supporters of small, non‐established parties choose to vote for different parties in the elections to the European Parliament (EP) and elections to the national parliament. It uses individual‐level data with open‐ended questions from an online survey on supporters of Feminist Initiative (Fi) – a comparatively small and new Swedish feminist party – to map voters’ own motivations for split‐ticket voting in the 2014 electio…
Do We Really Want to Know? The Potentially Negative Effect of Transparency in Decision Making on Perceived Legitimacy
Building on the notion of transparency as a strong democratic value and theories of procedural justice, this article reports an explorative experimental test whether transparency in decision making may lead to increased perceived legitimacy in terms of decision acceptance and trust. This is done in a context of difficult decisions of high importance for citizens – namely priority setting in public health care. An experiment was designed in which …
Policy Area as a Potential Moderator of Transparency Effects: An Experiment
Building on the counterintuitive findings of recent empirical studies that transparency in political decision making may have a negative effect on public legitimacy beliefs, this article suggests that transparency has different effects depending on the policy area. Specifically, it argues that transparency is less effective in policy decisions that involve trade‐offs related to questions of human life and death or well‐being. Using an experiment …
When Does Transparency Generate Legitimacy? Experimenting on a Context‐Bound Relationship
We analyze the main rationale for public administrations and political institutions for supplying transparency, namely, that it generates legitimacy for these institutions. First, we discuss different theories of decision making from which plausible causal mechanisms that may drive a link between transparency and legitimacy may be derived. We find that the common notion of a straightforward positive correlation is naïve and that transparency refo…
Transparency actually: How Transparency Affects Public Perceptions of Political Decision-Making
Building on a widely held account of transparency as integral to legitimate and successful governance, this article addresses the question of how transparency in decision-making can influence public perceptions of political decision-making. An original experiment with 1099 participants shows that people who perceive political decision-making to be transparent judge the degree of procedural fairness highly and are more willing to accept the final …
Secrecy and Publicity in Votes and Debates
In the spirit of Jeremy Bentham's Political Tactics, this volume offers the first comprehensive discussion of the effects of secrecy and publicity on debates and votes in committees and assemblies. The contributors - sociologists, political scientists, historians, legal scholars - consider the micro-technology of voting (the devil is in the detail), the historical relations between the secret ballot and universal suffrage, the use and abolition o…
Same Considerations, Different Decisions: Motivations for Split‐ticket Voting among Swedish Feminist Initiative Supporters
This article explores why supporters of small, non‐established parties choose to vote for different parties in the elections to the European Parliament (EP) and elections to the national parliament. It uses individual‐level data with open‐ended questions from an online survey on supporters of Feminist Initiative (Fi) – a comparatively small and new Swedish feminist party – to map voters’ own motivations for split‐ticket voting in the 2014 electio…
Preparing political science students for a non-academic career: Experiences from a novel course module
Higher education is increasingly expected not only to provide students with disciplinary knowledge and skills but also to prepare them for a future career. As political science is a diverse discipline and does not train students for a certain profession, its students often feel uncertain of the career paths available to them and how their expertise can be used in a future career. In this article, we present and discuss the course ‘The Professiona…
How do supreme audit institutions manage their autonomy and impact? A comparative analysis
Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) are gradually becoming important agents of public management reform; a development raising issues of autonomy and potential capture by auditees as well as by the political system. Drawing on exploratory case studies of the rules and strategies of four high-performing SAIs – those of Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden – the article shows that SAIs have different approaches to the balance between autonomy an…
Artificial intelligence, transparency, and public decision-making: Why explanations are key when trying to produce perceived legitimacy
The increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for making decisions in public affairs has sparked a lively debate on the benefits and potential harms of self-learning technologies, ranging from the hopes of fully informed and objectively taken decisions to fear for the destruction of mankind. To prevent the negative outcomes and to achieve accountable systems, many have argued that we need to open up the “black box” of AI decision-making and …
Lights on the shadows of public procurement: Transparency as an antidote to corruption
The increased focus on marketizing mechanisms and contracting‐out operations following the New Public Management reform agenda has sparked a debate on whether the close interactions between public and private actors might drive corruption in the public sector. The main response to those worries has been increased transparency, but so far empirical evidence of its efficiency remains scant and mixed. This article argues that the beneficial effects …
Collaborative gaming: When principals and agents agree to game the system
This paper presents a previously unexplored type of gaming of performance data, collaborative gaming, where the performance measurement system incentivizes the executive and an agency to game collaboratively. The paper shows how overlapping incentives between government departments and agencies to present successful implementation of programs can drive collaboration to modify performance targets and/or performance measurements. The argument is il…
It’s Not Over When It’s Over”―Post-Decision Arrangements and Empirical Legitimacy
A chronic problem for democratic governments is generating legitimacy for policy decisions that go against substantial groups of citizens’ legitimate interests. The primary means of achieving this aim involve the arrangements through which policy decisions are made. Whereas research in the field has tended to focus on the arrangements leading up to a decision, this paper draws attention to developments after a formal policy decision has been made…
Beyond auditor and auditee: Exploring the governance of performance in eldercare
Auditing is a key tool for governing performance. Informed by the ‘audit trail logic’ this article takes a micro-perspective on auditing in which the auditees play an active role. Using the case of eldercare, it explores what actors do as they take part in audits and how they make sense of the underlying logic. Findings reveal that the roles of auditor and auditee may not only shift between audits, but also blur during audit activities. Therefore…
Misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties: A party loyalty dilemma
What is the nature of misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties? While there is a large literature on whistleblowing in other organisational settings, we are yet to understand how these accountability processes work in parties. Using a survey of 1165 Swedish politicians, we show that misconduct in parties primarily relates to serious structural organisational problems and inappropriate personal conduct. Witnessed misconduct is reported a…
Walking a mile in their shoes —How local politicians reason about trade-off decisions
When deliberative mini‐publics’ outcomes and political decisions clash: Examining how responsive communication influences legitimacy perceptions
This article explores how citizens’ legitimacy perceptions are affected when decision makers deviate from the recommendations of a deliberative mini‐public (DMP), and what can be done to mitigate negative consequences. The results of a preregistered vignette experiment in Belgium (N = 2659) support our two main expectations. First, citizens’ legitimacy perceptions decrease when politicians do not follow the outcome of a DMP. Second, when politici…
Leaking season: An analysis of the timing of media disclosures from party insiders in Sweden 2010-2024
Why is compromising information about misconduct in political parties leaked to the media by party insiders? Drawing on previous research and interviews with political and investigative journalists, we hypothesize that such media disclosures are made with political intent and thus more likely when (1) party list nominations take place and (2) when parties are losing popular support. Through an analysis of 349 newspaper articles of misconduct in p…
Treading water or jumping off the trampoline? How local authorities navigate decisions on the location of public services
One of the most pressing challenges for contemporary local governments is how to provide public services of sufficient quality when resources are scarce. This is particularly acute in peripheral or rural areas facing depopulation, where downsizing or closing public service units is often the only viable option. While much research has focused on the citizens negatively affected by such cuts, this study examines the perspective of decision-makers …
Political science (16 works) · Politics (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (7 works)