Nurturing the ‘personal-responsibility’ dimension of integrity – the key to helping members of parliament understand and act with integrity?

Abstract

Trust in democratic institutions suffers when members of parliament (MP) misbehave, using their office for purely personal gain or engaging in corrupt behaviour. This thesis explores how parliamentary integrity systems help MPs to behave with integrity, and how nurturing the ‘personal-responsibility’ dimension of integrity (Dobel 1999) strengthens the performance of the systems. Patrick Dobel (1999) underlined the significance of this dimension, referring to MPs confronting an integrity ‘situation’, such as a conflict of interest, with understanding and personal capacity of judgement on the adequate course of action. The existing literature on parliamentary integrity systems has largely ignored this dimension of integrity. Anchored in the theoretical framework of New Institutionalism (March & Olsen 1984), the main research question is:
What impact does the nurturing of the personal-responsibility dimension by means of a parliamentary integrity system have on MPs’ understanding of integrity requirements and capacity to act with integrity?
This thesis has adopted a qualitative comparative approach in the form of a multiple-case study design to answer the research question. The thesis assesses the parliamentary integrity systems of Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia and Finland. The research confirms the hypothesis of the personal-responsibility dimension leading to enhanced understanding of / and behaviour with integrity. The comparative review of the four cases shows that the personal-responsibility dimension is a necessary and sufficient condition for MP integrity. Other dimensions of integrity systems such as the rules on integrity and related enforcement structures, referred to by Dobel (1999) as the legal-institutional dimension, are not a sufficient condition. There is an important lesson here for parliaments thinking about reforming their integrity systems. Indeed, instead of responding to integrity scandals by introducing ever more demanding rules and strengthening enforcement, the parliaments’ efforts can be more effectively deployed on developing the understanding and capacity of MPs in terms of dealing with integrity issues.

Date of Award	1 Oct 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Michelle Cini (Supervisor) & Nieves Perez-Solorzano Borragan (Supervisor)