How Do Credit Rating Agencies Rate? An Implementation Perspective on the Assessment of Austerity Programs during the European Debt Crisis

Sager, Fritz; Hinterleitner, Markus

doi:10.1111/polp.12165

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 59 publications

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“…In this context, BAB is considered as a way to circumvent electoral punishment by influencing steps (2) and (3) (Hinterleitner, 2015). Scholars have examined the use of blame avoidance strategies for retrenchment purposes in various settings and have explored the conditions under which officeholders can successfully apply such strategies (Vis, 2009;Giger and Nelson, 2011;Wenzelburger, 2011;Mortensen, 2012;Jensen and Mortensen, 2014;Wenzelburger, 2014;Vis, 2016;Hinterleitner et al, 2016;Sager and Hinterleitner, 2016).…”

Section: Four Worlds Of Blame Avoidancementioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipatory and reactive forms of blame avoidance: of foxes and lions

Hinterleitner

Sager

2016

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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Blame avoidance behavior (BAB) encompasses all kinds of integrity-protecting activities by officeholders in the face of potentially blame-attracting events. Although considered essential for a realistic understanding of politics and policymaking, a general understanding of this multi-faceted behavioral phenomenon and its implications has been lacking to date. We argue that this is due to the lack of careful conceptualization of various forms of BAB. Crucially, the difference between anticipatory and reactive forms of BAB is largely neglected in the literature. This paper links anticipatory and reactive forms of BAB as two consecutive decision situations. It exposes dependence relationships between the situations that trigger BAB, the rationalities at work, the resources and strategies applied by blame-avoiding actors, and the various consequences thereof. The paper concludes that anticipatory and reactive BAB are distinct phenomena that require specific research approaches to assess their relevance for the workings of polities.

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