The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Blame avoidance in comparative perspective: reactivity, staged retreat and efficacy

Blame avoidance in comparative perspective: reactivity, staged retreat and efficacy
Blame avoidance in comparative perspective: reactivity, staged retreat and efficacy
Building on blame-avoidance analysis, this paper develops a method to assess the reactivity, sequencing and efficacy of defensive responses by officeholders facing a crisis of personal blame, analysing cases drawn from four advanced democracies. It tests the hypotheses that officeholders: react by positive action rather than non-engagement when blame levels are high; respond in a ‘staged retreat’ sequence; and can reduce the level of blame they face from one day to another through choice of presentational strategies. The paper applies event history analysis to test the sequencing hypothesis and time series cross-sectional models to test the reactivity and efficacy hypotheses. The analysis shows that officeholders tend to respond actively when blame levels are high, that to some extent their responses tend to follow a staged retreat pattern, and their interventions have a systematic effect on the next day’s media blame level only if they take the form of personal statements
0033-3298
542-562
Hood, Christopher
37c09ae1-5715-4188-94b6-3328e374370c
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Copeland, Paul
3f5430b5-0fb4-4e36-a3a4-8e95283a53f4
Hood, Christopher
37c09ae1-5715-4188-94b6-3328e374370c
Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Copeland, Paul
3f5430b5-0fb4-4e36-a3a4-8e95283a53f4

Hood, Christopher, Jennings, Will and Copeland, Paul (2015) Blame avoidance in comparative perspective: reactivity, staged retreat and efficacy. Public Administration, 94 (2), 542-562. (doi:10.1111/padm.12235).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Building on blame-avoidance analysis, this paper develops a method to assess the reactivity, sequencing and efficacy of defensive responses by officeholders facing a crisis of personal blame, analysing cases drawn from four advanced democracies. It tests the hypotheses that officeholders: react by positive action rather than non-engagement when blame levels are high; respond in a ‘staged retreat’ sequence; and can reduce the level of blame they face from one day to another through choice of presentational strategies. The paper applies event history analysis to test the sequencing hypothesis and time series cross-sectional models to test the reactivity and efficacy hypotheses. The analysis shows that officeholders tend to respond actively when blame levels are high, that to some extent their responses tend to follow a staged retreat pattern, and their interventions have a systematic effect on the next day’s media blame level only if they take the form of personal statements

Text
PADM_AcceptedVersion.pdf - Accepted Manuscript
Download (814kB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 15 October 2015
Published date: 28 December 2015
Organisations: Politics & International Relations

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 383322
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/383322
ISSN: 0033-3298
PURE UUID: 1511983e-6d00-4f19-a50e-8ad038d3d3d1
ORCID for Will Jennings: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-8896

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Nov 2015 11:29
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:42

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Christopher Hood
Author: Will Jennings ORCID iD
Author: Paul Copeland

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×