JPART 36/3 pp. 361-377 2026-05-07 Original Who is this for? How felt accountability shapes the enactment of accountability in public service delivery
Margit Ernst
Abstract
Abstract What makes accountability work? To answer this question, public administration research has long focused on formal mechanisms—–rules, audits, and performance indicators—intended to ensure that public employees answer for their actions. Yet these mechanisms alone rarely determine how accountability plays out in practice. Rather, it depends on how they are recognized, internalized, and enacted by those expected to comply. This realization has spurred growing interest in how employees perceive and enact accountability in the context of public service delivery. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study unpacks how street-level bureaucrats navigate tensions between formal accountability demands and their internalized perceptions of accountability. The findings reveal how employees weigh, reinterpret, or reframe accountability based on what they perceive to be at stake. To conceptualize this, the article introduces a concentric model of accountability.
JCC — pp. 1-16 2026-05-07 Original A Risk-Centered Approach to Data Privacy: Interpreting the Birth of China’s Personal Information Protection Law
AJPS — 2026-05-05
Original Vote buying and negative agenda control: A problem for the study of money in politics
Andre Van Parys
Abstract
Abstract Politicians, pundits, and ordinary citizens frequently argue that money has an outsized influence on US politics. Yet research on the effect of money on politicians' behavior finds limited effects, especially on voting behavior. I construct a formal model to show that these limited effects may be an artifact of the institutional powers of agenda setters, and the strategic nature of the data generating process. The model predicts that, under general conditions, vote buying against proposals can occur with no vote held, and that vote buying is most likely when uncertainty is high, the interest group and agenda setter are extreme, and the pivotal legislator is moderate. I argue that these conditions held during the 2021 negotiations over the Build Back Better Act. Using a synthetic control design, I test whether the swing voters in the Senate received more campaign contributions than they would have otherwise, finding evidence consistent with the model.
APSR — pp. 1-15 2026-05-05 Original Procedural Polarization: How Election Rules Shape Voters’ Confidence
JOSHUA D. CLINTON
Abstract
Prior research demonstrates voters’ confidence in elections depends on whether their preferred candidate wins, but does agreement with the electoral rules being used also matter? Leveraging growing procedural polarization in election laws, public opinion data from 2008 to 2024, and a large-scale survey experiment conducted before the 2024 election, I show that agreement with election procedures matters for voter confidence beyond well-established effects related to partisan control and electoral outcomes. Observational and experimental analyses consistently reveal that voters are less likely to express confidence in election results conducted using procedures they oppose. The effects are particularly large for voter identification laws and among Republicans and independents. The findings underscore a tension in American federalism: as states increasingly adopt divergent electoral rules aligned with co-partisan preferences, partisan divides in electoral confidence may deepen. If so, procedural responsiveness to partisan preferences may undermine electoral confidence and, in turn, perceptions of electoral legitimacy.
JOP — pp. 000-000 2026-05-04 Original Who Benefits? How Gender Shapes the Perceived Deservingness of Welfare Claimants
Dot Sawler
Abstract
（原文未提供摘要）
中文 谁受益？性别如何塑造对福利申领者应得性的认知
Dot Sawler
摘要
原文未提供摘要
关键词
性别、福利申领者、应得性、福利态度、公众舆论、社会政策
DOI: 10.1086/736802
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GOV 39/3 2026-05-04
Original The Financialization of European Social Care: A Descriptive Network Analysis
Simon Demuynck, Wouter Van Dooren
Abstract
ABSTRACT Social services in Europe underwent significant changes in recent decades. Using our unique dataset covering the ownership networks of over 100,000 child care, disability care, and care for older adults facilities across 27 EU countries and the UK, we conduct a macro‐level network analysis to answer (1) who the main financial industry actors are in European social care markets; (2) where in these markets financialization is taking place; and (3) what position the financial industry occupies in the ownership networks of social care. The analysis reveals how a significant part of European social service facilities across differing types of European welfare states is indirectly owned by financial corporations. We demonstrate that network approaches can provide a more effective method for computing variables related to service ownership, as they capture indirect ownership links not visible in traditional datasets. The highly networked and financialized nature of social provision raises questions about systemic risks in social care sectors. Moreover, financialization could also erode the government's ability to achieve public goals in social care.
PMR — pp. 1-27 2026-05-01 Original Design, institutional complexity and compromises: exploring the role of design in transforming dementia care
Maria Taivalsaari Røhnebæk, Marit Engen
PMR — pp. 1-29 2026-04-30 Original Sustaining collective performance data use in collaborations: a case study of the Citizen Security Plan in Jamaica
Aubrey M. Stewart, Alexander Kroll
GOV 39/3 2026-04-29
Original The Supply Chain of Economic Ideas: Institutional Discourse and Policy Change in U.S. Economic Governance, 1945–2024
JOP — 2026-04-29
Original The Mobilizing Potential of Mass Emigration: Experimental Evidence from Honduras
Jesse Acevedo, Francisca Castro
Abstract
（原文未提供摘要）
中文 大规模移民的动员潜力：来自洪都拉斯的实验证据
Jesse Acevedo, Francisca Castro
摘要
原文未提供摘要
关键词
大规模移民、移民、政治动员、实验证据、洪都拉斯、比较政治