Fighting serious organised crime and corruption in Albania: Testing messaging approaches
Project Completed
PROJECT TEAM
Professor Nic Cheeseman
University of Birmingham
Contact: n.cheeseman@bham.ac.uk
Nic Cheeseman (@fromagehomme) is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham. He mainly works on democracy, elections and development, including election rigging, political campaigning, corruption, “fake news” and presidential rule. The articles he has published have won a number of prizes, including the GIGA award for the best article in Comparative Area Studies (2013) and the Frank Cass Award for the best article in Democratization (2015). Professor Cheeseman is also the author or editor of more than ten books, including How to Rig an Election (2018) and The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa (2021).
Dr Caryn Peiffer
University of Bristol
Contact: Caryn.peiffer@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Caryn Peiffer is Senior Lecturer of International Public Policy and Governance at the University of Bristol. Her research largely focuses on patterns of grass-roots corruption, the functionality of corruption, and the consequences of anticorruption policies. She has conducted research in several countries and works regularly with Transparency International and other international organisations to understand the likely impacts of anticorruption efforts and on the measurement of corruption.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The aim of the research to test the effects of awareness-raising about corruption and SOC in Albania. Awareness-raising efforts are prominent in many counter-SOC and anticorruption policy strategies. This study tests five different messages that are hypothesised to have a positive influence in fostering supportive counter-SOC and anticorruption attitudes and resemble those that are most likely to be used in policy.
The study aims to identify what types of messages might be useful and which ones should be avoided for policy makers. Research findings have the potential to enable policy makers to design more effective counter-SOC and anticorruption messaging strategies in the future, empowering them to better respond to some of the most significant threats to democracy, development and the rule of law in Albania specifically, with relevant insights for strategic communications elsewhere.
PUBLICATIONS
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Can messaging help in fighting serious organised crime (SOC) and corruption in Albania? (SOC ACE Research Paper 2)
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How do Albanians feel about corruption and serious organised crime (SOC) in 2022? (SOC ACE Briefing Note 05)
Can messaging help in fighting serious organised crime (SOC) and corruption in Albania? (SOC ACE Briefing Note 06)
Testing to see if an awareness messaging campaign about ‘social bads’ will actually work: why experimental techniques are best (SOC ACE Briefing Note BN26)
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Cheeseman N, Peiffer C. Getting the message right: what are the impacts of counter-serious and organised crime awareness-raising strategies? Behavioural Public Policy. 30 April 2024.
Cheeseman N, Peiffer C. Opening the door to anti-system leaders? Anti-corruption campaigns and the global rise of populism European Journal of Political Research. 24 April 2024.
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Engagement
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Nic Cheeseman & Caryn Peiffer, To change corrupt behaviour, change the message, 360info, 1 December 2022.