Honesty in Nepali Politicians: Does It Really Exist?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1234/laj.v14i4.253364Keywords:
Politician, honesty, citizen, demographics, social association, NepalAbstract
In principle, politicians should perform their public duties with honesty and professionalism. However, politicians' honesty is often observed to be quite low in the eye of the citizens. In this milieu, this study analyzed the perceived honesty of Nepali politicians using micro-level data from the Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18. The data were analyzed using the ordered probit model. Results showed that the citizen’s perception of honesty in Nepali politicians is quite low, with most Nepali citizens perceiving politicians as ‘dishonest’. The perceived level of honesty in politicians varies with citizens' demographics and social associations. Men, urban populaces, younger generations, rich, and educated citizens believe politicians are less honest. In the case of social association, citizens who are members of self-help groups, user groups, and non-governmental organizations generally believe politicians are honest, whereas citizens who are members of professional organizations generally believe politicians are less honest. To gain the confidence of citizens, politicians must demonstrate professional political culture, work honestly for the nation and the citizens, and be free of personal self-interest.
References
Adhikari, A., Gautam, B., Pudasaini, S., & Sarma, S. (2014). Impunity and political accountability in Nepal. New York: Asia Foundation.
Aichholzer, J., & Willmann, J. (2020). Desired personality traits in politicians: Similar to me but more of a leader. Journal of Research in Personality, 88, 103990.
Amundsen, I. (1999). Political corruption: An introduction to the issues. Norway: Chr. Michelsen Institute.
Bean, C. (2008). Are we keeping the bastards honest? Perceptions of corruption, integrity and influence on politics. In P. Juliet & A. Haydn (Eds.), Australia: Identity, fear and governance in the 21st century (PP. 95-106). Australia: Griffin Press.
Bhattarai, K. P. (2004). Local dynamics of conflict and the political development in Nepal: A new model for conflict transformation. Sweden: Center for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University.
Bhavnani, R. R., & Condra, L. N. (2012). Why people vote for corrupt politicians: Evidence from survey experiments in Afghanistan. London: International Growth Centre Political Economy Grant.
Birch, S., & Allen, N. (2010). How honest do politicians need to be? The Political Quarterly, 81(1), 49-56.
Birch, S., & Allen, N. (2015). Judging politicians: The role of political attentiveness in shaping how people evaluate the ethical behaviour of their leaders. European Journal of Political Research, 54(1), 43-60.
Citrin, J., & Stoker, L. (2018). Political trust in a cynical age. Annual Review of Political Science, 21, 49-70.
Clarke, N., Jennings, W., Moss, J., & Stoker, G. (2018). The good politician: Folk theories, political interaction, and the rise of anti-politics. London: Cambridge University Press.
Dalton, R. J. (2005). The social transformation of trust in government. International Review of Sociology, 15(1), 133-154.
David-Barrett, E. (2013). Background study: Professional and ethical standards for parliamentarians. Poland: Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
Davis, M. L., & Ferrantino, M. (1996). Towards a positive theory of political rhetoric: Why do politicians lie? Public Choice, 88(1), 1-13.
Daykin, A. R., & Moffatt, P. G. (2002). Analyzing ordered responses: A review of the ordered probit model. Understanding Statistics: Statistical Issues in Psychology, Education, and the Social Sciences, 1(3), 157-166.
Devkota, K. (2019). Leadership crisis in Nepali politics: Specific focus on national parties in the context of declaration of the republic. Social Inquiry: Journal of Social Science Research, 1(1), 42-51.
De Vries, R. E., & Van Prooijen, J. W. (2019). Voters rating politicians' personality: Evaluative biases and assumed similarity on honesty-humility and openness to experience. Personality and individual differences, 144, 100-104.
Fehrler, S., Fischbacher, U., & Schneider, M. T. (2016). Who runs? Honesty and self-selection into politics. Germany: IZA.
Government of Nepal. (1990). The constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal.
Government of Nepal. (2015). The constitution of Nepal 2015. Kathmandu: Government of Nepal.
Gupta, A. K., Poudyal, T., & Shrestha, S. (2019). Politicians and bureaucrats’ relation in local governance of Nepal. Local Government Quarterly, 5-24.
Gupta, A. K. (2020). Trust in public and political institutions: What Nepali citizens say. Lalitpur: Nepal Administrative Staff College.
Hatlebakk, M. (2017). Nepal: A political economy analysis report. Norway: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
Johnston, M. (1986). Right & wrong in American politics: Popular conceptions of corruption. Polity, 18(3), 367-391.
Liddell, T. M., & Kruschke, J. K. (2018). Analyzing ordinal data with metric models: What could possibly go wrong? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 79, 328-348.
Luhmann, N. (1994). Politicians, honesty and the higher amorality of politics. Theory, Culture & Society, 11(2), 25-36.
Mancuso et al. (2006). A question of ethics: Canadians speak out. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press.
Nepal Administrative Staff College. (2018). Nepal national governance survey 2017/18. Lalitpur: Nepal Administrative Staff College.
Pyakuryal, K., & Suvedi, M. (2000). Understanding Nepal’s development: Context, interventions and people’s aspirations. Michigan: Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Education and Communication Systems, Michigan State University.
Rivera, B. (2001). The effects of public health spending on self-assessed health status: An ordered probit model. Applied Economics, 33(10), 1313-1319.
Shah, R. (2019). Corruption in Nepal: An analytical study. Tribhuvan University Journal, 32(1), 273-292.
Snellinger, A. (2010). Transfiguration of the political: Nepali student activism and the politics of acculturation (Doctoral dissertation). New York: Cornell University.
The Asia Foundation & Enabling State Programme. (2012). A guide to government in Nepal: Structures, functions, and practices. Kathmandu: The Asia Foundation and Enabling State Programme.
Thompson, D. F. (2000). Ethics in Congress: From individual to institutional corruption. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Transparency International. (2020). Global corruption barometer Asia 2020: Citizens’ views and experiences of corruption. Germany: Transparency International.
Turper, S., & Aarts, K. (2017). Political trust and sophistication: Taking measurement seriously. Social indicators research, 130(1), 415-434.
Woon, J., & Kanthak, K. (2001). Elections, ability, and candidate honesty. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 157, 735-753.
Wroe, A., Allen, N., & Birch, S. (2013). The role of political trust in conditioning perceptions of corruption. European Political Science Review, 5(2), 175-195.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Local Administration Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The copyright of all articles published in the Local Administration Journalis owned by the College of Local Administration, Khon Kaen University.
