Vetting for Virtue

Democracy’s Challenge in Excluding Criminals from Office

Bibliographic Data

ID19213397
AuthorsSigurd S Arntzen (0009-0005-9259-9819, BI Norwegian Business School, corresponding author), Jon H Fiva (0000-0002-9170-4964, BI Norwegian Business School, corresponding author), Rune J Sørensen (0000-0003-0375-7677, BI Norwegian Business School, corresponding author)
Year2024
Pages1-20
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003055426101634
OpenAlexW4404678242
LanguageEN
References cited48

How effective are democratic systems in preventing individuals with criminal backgrounds from holding political office? We investigate this question for the case of Norway, which has no legal restrictions against felons running for office. We analyze local election candidates from 2003 to 2019, paired with administrative records of criminal offenses. We demonstrate that individuals with criminal records are systematically penalized at every stage of their political careers. Candidates are less likely to have criminal records than the general population, with elected officials less likely to have criminal backgrounds than their unelected peers, and mayors being the most lawful. In Norway’s flexible-list PR system—where parties rank candidates and voters can cast personal votes for preferred candidates—our evidence shows that party gatekeeping accounts for most filtering, while personal votes contribute little at the margin

Democracy · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vetting · Virtue · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Criminal Law and Evidence · Law · Public Administration · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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