Culture and the Quality of Government

Abstract

This article uses a cross‐country data set to empirically investigate the relationship between national culture and the quality of government. Culture has a strong impact on the quality of government that remains stable even after controlling for differences in institutions and economic development. This effect remains significant when the continents are considered separately, with the exception of Asia. The results reveal the importance of culture in understanding the quality of government and open new avenues for research in comparative public administration in a globalized world.

Fighting COVID‐19 with Agility, Transparency, and Participation: Wicked Policy Problems and New Governance Challenges

“…There are many alternative policy options on the table, from China's harsh complete blockage of the epicenter using the army and monitoring drones to Japan's soft and reactive measures without proactive testing and lockdown. Some argue that many Western democratic countries are paying a high price for their open and free society, where methods such as China's sudden and complete blockage option are not likely to be easily accepted (Perez‐Pena 2020), while the linkage between culture and quality of government has been studied (Porcher forthcoming).…”

Lessons From COVID-19 Responses in East Asia: Institutional Infrastructure and Enduring Policy Instruments

“…Also, paradoxical findings by Porcher (forthcoming)—that culture shapes government quality more than formal and political institutions worldwide, but not in Asia—may be reconcilable when viewed in the context of our analysis. In other words, policy impacts on wicked problem-solving is a function of the interactions between culture and policy instrument choices, constrained by institutional infrastructure and capacity.…”

“…Although these actions may look extreme in Westerners’ eyes, they are viable in East Asia due to its collectivist culture. In this culture, individuals are willing to sacrifice their freedom during a crisis for the collective good (Hofstede, 2001; Porcher, forthcoming). These Asian communities exhibit a long history of persistent threats from wars, natural disasters, and pathogens, which have shaped strong social norms and strict principles governing social behavior and desirability (Gelfand et al, 2011).…”

“…From a conceptual point of view, for example, Rothstein and Teorell (2008) argue for the importance of impartiality in the exercise of public authority. Recently, Porcher’s (forthcoming) empirical work shows that culture may also be such a determinant. The World Bank provides various governance indicators, but perhaps the most comprehensive and refined index comes from the Berggruen Institute, which combines 25 sub-indices over 14 years for 38 countries (Anheier, 2019).…”

Through the Editor's Lens: Understanding the Editorial Role Through Metaphor

“…Park and Liang (2021) use a panel dataset of 135 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) and non‐OECD countries to explore whether gender representation of government leadership in the legislative and executive branches improves social equity related to women's social outcomes. And finally, Porcher (2021) considers the relationship between national culture and government quality. Culture has a strong, stable impact on the quality of government.…”