IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v4y2020i10p169-184.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government Corruption, Politics of Prebendalism and Democratic Governance in Quebec, Canada

Author

Listed:
  • William Hermann Arrey, Ph.D.

    (Senior Lecturer Chair, Department of Peace and Development Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and International Relations Protestant University of Central Africa.Yaoundé, Cameroon)

Abstract

This paper exposes the negative consequences of government corruption and the politics of prebendalism on democratic governance in Quebec, Canada. Relevant information was obtained through a desk-based research, making use of secondary data. Moreover, by adopted the theory of prebendalism as the theoretical framework of analysis, the paper finds out that, to a great extent, top level political offices and some government institutions have simply become a route to riches for politicians in Quebec. Many stay in power ‘merely to enjoy’ the benefits of illicit enrichment accumulating from the political offices they occupy. It has been uncovered that government corruption carved within political parties (and other government institutions), driven by the politics of prebendalism has curtailed the development of a strong democratic governance mode that can work for both the leaders and the led. The central argument supported by the analysis in this paper is that, politicians’ struggle to occupy state offices by electoral competition, with the premeditated mindset of using such offices as prebends, to be ‘swiftly exploited’ in a variety of formal and informal networks for person gains, produces a very ‘thin’ version of democracy, antithetical to the principles of democratic governance. Hence, the findings of this paper are important in our understanding of the mutually reinforcing nature of several dimensions of politico-economic behavior, motivated by a system of prebendal politics, which is socio-politically and economically destructive to democratic governance and development not only in ‘emerging’ but also in advanced democracies. As such, the analytical and public policy insight developed in this paper has important democratic implications not only for Quebec, Canada but also for other advanced democracies experiencing similar democratic governance challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • William Hermann Arrey, Ph.D., 2020. "Government Corruption, Politics of Prebendalism and Democratic Governance in Quebec, Canada," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(10), pages 169-184, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:4:y:2020:i:10:p:169-184
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-4-issue-10/169-184.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/papers/government-corruption-politics-of-prebendalism-and-democratic-governance-in-quebec-canada/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher J. Anderson & Yuliya V. Tverdova, 2003. "Corruption, Political Allegiances, and Attitudes Toward Government in Contemporary Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(1), pages 91-109, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lourdes ROJAS RUBIO, 2022. "Inequality, Corruption and Support for Democracy," THEMA Working Papers 2022-20, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    2. Maria Kravtsova & Aleksey Oshchepkov, 2019. "Market And Network Corruption," HSE Working papers WP BRP 209/EC/2019, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    3. Ali Abdelzadeh, 2014. "The Impact of Political Conviction on the Relation Between Winning or Losing and Political Dissatisfaction," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(2), pages 21582440145, May.
    4. Di Guardo, Maria Chiara & Marrocu, Emanuela & Paci, Raffaele, 2016. "The effect of local corruption on ownership strategy in cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4225-4241.
    5. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio, 2020. "Birds of a feather flock together: trust in government, political selection and electoral punishment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(3), pages 263-287, September.
    6. Onyeka Osuji, 2011. "Fluidity of Regulation-CSR Nexus: The Multinational Corporate Corruption Example," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 31-57, September.
    7. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    8. repec:gig:joupla:v:7:y:2015:i:1:p:45-81 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Keita, Kady & Rabaud, Isabelle & Turcu, Camelia, 2023. "Fiscal outcomes, current account imbalances, and institutions in Europe: Exploring nonlinearities," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 121-134.
    10. Gustavo Gouvêa Maciel & Luís de Sousa, 2018. "Legal Corruption and Dissatisfaction with Democracy in the European Union," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 653-674, November.
    11. Zafar Nazarov & Anastassia Obydenkova, 2022. "Public Health, Democracy, and Transition: Global Evidence and Post-Communism," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 261-285, February.
    12. Armand, Alex & Coutts, Alexander & Vicente, Pedro C. & Vilela, Inês, 2023. "Measuring corruption in the field using behavioral games," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    13. Gabriel Caldas Montes & Paulo Henrique Luna, 2021. "Fiscal transparency, legal system and perception of the control on corruption: empirical evidence from panel data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 2005-2037, April.
    14. Eugen Dimant & Guglielmo Tosato, 2018. "Causes And Effects Of Corruption: What Has Past Decade'S Empirical Research Taught Us? A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 335-356, April.
    15. Wu, Tao & Delios, Andrew & Chen, Zhaowei & Wang, Xin, 2023. "Rethinking corruption in international business: An empirical review," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    16. Meral Ugur-Cinar & Kursat Cinar & Tekin Kose, 2020. "How Does Education Affect Political Trust?: An Analysis of Moderating Factors," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 779-808, November.
    17. Barry Eichengreen & Orkun Saka & Cevat Giray Aksoy, 2024. "The Political Scar of Epidemics," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(660), pages 1683-1700.
    18. Adrián Ferreras & Paula Castro & María T. Tascón, 2024. "Carbon performance and financial debt: Effect of formal and informal institutions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 2801-2822, July.
    19. Phillip Keefer & Carlos Scartascini, 2022. "Organization, Citizenship, and the Social Contract," IDB Publications (Book Chapters), in: Phillip Keefer & Carlos Scartascini (ed.), Trust: The Key to Social Cohesion and Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, edition 1, chapter 8, pages 195-222, Inter-American Development Bank.
    20. Alberto Chong & Ana L. De La O & Dean Karlan & Leonard Wantchekon, 2011. "Looking Beyond the Incumbent: The Effects of Exposing Corruption on Electoral Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 17679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:4:y:2020:i:10:p:169-184. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.