The use of the party manifesto data (PMD) to identify parties' position in the political space provides a rather distorted picture of the Italian party system. Three possible explanations for this are explored, namely that the Italian party system is exceptional, that there are flaws in the data and there might be flaws in the methodology. The article argues that none of these explanations is fully satisfactory and advances the hypothesis that the PMD left–right scores do not indicate parties' positions but instead indicate parties' direction, that is how (and how much) parties move to adjust to changing political conditions and to remain competitive. Statistical analyses, performed to test the validity of the directional interpretation of the left–right scores, support this new interpretation.

In the comparative research we present here as the introduction to a set of case studies, we first assess the quality of democratic procedures, content and outcomes in eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region on the basis of quantitative and qualitative data. Second, we investigate whether, to what extent, and how democratic qualities relate to one another. These investigations are carried out by applying an analytical framework that we developed elsewhere. In contrast to our previous empirical findings demonstrating that all the qualities go hand in hand, that participation and competition are the main determinants of democratic qualities, and that the democratic qualities form a funnel of causality, the present study suggests a different set of conclusions. In the Asia-Pacific region, the democratic qualities are weakly related to one another, do not form a funnel of causality, and participation and competition are not the main drivers of democratic quality. The data presented in the empirical section of the paper claim the existence of an Asia-Pacific exceptionalism. By carefully examining the cases included in our sample, we provide a detailed explanation for why, at least as far as democratic qualities are concerned, the Asia-Pacific region may be exceptional and unique. We reach the conclusion that responsiveness could be achieved by a transition from a rule by law – often coupled with the prominence of patronage, patrimonialist practices and privileges for the elite – to a proper rule of law.

Previous analyses have shown that the success of ethics reforms such as the adoption of codes of ethics and codes of conduct depends on whether legislators have homogeneous ethical standards. In this paper, we discuss why the DPD (upper chamber) and the DPR (lower chamber) of the Indonesian legislature have decided to enact a code of conduct. The paper also presents the results of a survey that we conducted in the Indonesian legislature. Data analysis reveals that the ethical standards of Indonesian legislators are far from being homogeneous. In the final section of the paper we suggest some of the steps that could be taken to homogenise their ethical views before drafting and implementing the code of conduct.

The paper investigates the determinants of bribery in sub‐Saharan Africa by using probit models and data from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey of 10,457 firms in 30 countries in sub‐Saharan Africa from 2009 to 2013. By doing so we find that securing a government contract is the most significant motivation for bribery and that overall, the propensity to bribe depends on the size of the firm as well as the predictability of the regulatory environment. Our findings have similarities and differences compared to Asian firms. The paper also highlights that the incidence and the determinants of bribery vary across the four sub‐regions. On the basis of this evidence we suggest that when it comes to anti‐corruption strategies, one size does not fit all and that country‐specific and region‐specific strategies should be adopted to address context‐specific needs and conditions.