The Denial of Governance Failure in High-Trust Democracies

How to Run the Analysis in Google Colab This dataset and code package is designed for execution in Google Colab, which provides a free cloud-based Python environment.Follow these steps to reproduce the results. 1. Open Google Colab Visit https://colab.research.google.com Sign in with your Google account. 2. Access the Notebooks This repository contains two analysis notebooks: Polis.ipynb cpi.ipynb Download them from Zenodo, or open them directly in Colab using File → Upload notebook. 3. Mount Google Drive (Optional but Recommended) Mounting Google Drive allows you to store the data permanently instead of uploading it each time. python CopiarEditar from google.colab import drive drive.mount('/content/drive') After mounting, place all dataset files in a folder inside your Drive (e.g., My Drive/CorruptionStudy/). 4. Required Dataset Files Ensure the following files are available in your Colab session (either uploaded directly or stored in Drive): File Description estat_sdg_16_50_en.csv Eurostat CPI dataset V-Dem-CY-Core-v15.csv V-Dem Core dataset Controls.xlsx Control variables Institutional.xlsx Institutional variables Core.xlsx Additional core variables 5. Upload Files (If Not Using Drive) If you are not using Google Drive, upload all files at the start of your session: python CopiarEditar from google.colab import files uploaded = files.upload() Select all required .csv and .xlsx files when prompted. 6. Install Required Python Packages Run the following command in a Colab cell: python CopiarEditar !pip install pandas numpy statsmodels linearmodels openpyxl 7. Update File Paths in the Notebook If files are uploaded directly in Colab: python CopiarEditar EUROSTAT_CPI_PATH = "/content/estat_sdg_16_50_en.csv" VDEM_PATH = "/content/V-Dem-CY-Core-v15.csv" CONTROLS_PATH = "/content/Controls.xlsx" INSTITUTIONAL_PATH= "/content/Institutional.xlsx" CORE_PATH = "/content/Core.xlsx" If files are stored in Google Drive: python CopiarEditar EUROSTAT_CPI_PATH = "/content/drive/My Drive/CorruptionStudy/estat_sdg_16_50_en.csv" VDEM_PATH = "/content/drive/My Drive/CorruptionStudy/V-Dem-CY-Core-v15.csv" 8. Run the Notebook Execute all cells in order (Runtime → Run all). The notebook will: Load CPI and V-Dem data Merge with control variables Standardize variables Estimate two-way fixed effects (Driscoll–Kraay standard errors) Output model summaries 9. Save Results To save results to Google Drive: python CopiarEditar df.to_excel("/content/drive/My Drive/CorruptionStudy/results.xlsx") To download directly: python CopiarEditar from google.colab import files files.download("results.xlsx") 10. Citation If using this dataset or code, please cite the Zenodo record as indicated in the Cite As section. Zenodo Dataset Description: Title: Epistemic Legitimacy Traps in High-Trust Democracies: Replication Data and Code Description: This dataset contains replication materials for "Epistemic Legitimacy Traps: How High-Trust Institutions Silence Inconvenient Truths" - a study examining how friendship-based corruption persists in democratic institutions through systematic exclusion of internal critics. Contents: Panel Analysis Data (481 country-year observations, 37 European countries, 2010-2022): V-Dem Democracy Dataset (v15) corruption measures Eurostat Corruption Perceptions Index data Merged and cleaned dataset for two-way fixed effects analysis Individual-Level Survey Data (66,054 observations): Controls, Core, and Institutional survey modules Variables measuring friendship reciprocity norms, institutional trust, and socioeconomic outcomes Cleaned dataset for OLS regression analysis Replication Code: Python scripts for panel data analysis with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors Stata/Python code for individual-level OLS regressions with robust and clustered standard errors Data cleaning and variable construction procedures Key Variables: Corruption Perceptions Index (Eurostat) V-Dem corruption measures (executive, public sector, composite) Institutional quality indicators (judicial independence, civil society participation) Individual friendship reciprocity and trust measures Sociodemographic controls Methodology: Two-way fixed effects panel regression (institutional analysis) and OLS with robust standard errors (individual analysis) testing the relationship between corruption measures, institutional quality, and public perceptions in high-trust democratic contexts. Research Questions: How do high-trust institutions maintain legitimacy while systematically excluding internal criticism? What role do friendship networks play in enabling "clean corruption" that operates through relationships rather than material exchanges? Keywords: corruption, epistemic injustice, institutional legitimacy, democracy, trust, whistleblowing, friendship networks, panel data Citation: [Author], [Year]. "Epistemic Legitimacy Traps: How High-Trust Institutions Silence Inconvenient Truths." Business Ethics Quarterly [forthcoming]. Data Sources: V-Dem Institute, Eurostat, [Original Survey Data Source] License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International