Anna Persson
Senior Lecturer
Department of Political ScienceAbout Anna Persson
Presentation
Anna Persson is associate professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg. She is also a member of the management collegium of the Quality of Government (QoG) Institute. She holds her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Gothenburg, and has a Master’s degree in Political Science from Lund University and McGill University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the School of Economics and Management at Lund University. In the spring of 2021, she added to her competence the degree of Master of Science with a major in Journalism with Specialization Investigative Journalism from the University of Gothenburg. She has previously been a visiting scholar at the Department of Political Science at UCLA and at the Department of Business and Politics at Copenhagen Business School.
Research
Persson’s primary fields of interest concern the comparative politics and comparative political economy of development and democratization. Especially, her research focuses on the relationship between formal and informal institutions, individual and collective behavior, and the willingness and capacity of political elites to provide goods that serve the broader public, as well as the factors that influence the likeliness that citizens will collectively mobilize to demand such goods. She has written extensively on corruption and anti-corruption reform, the role of political will in reform efforts, taxation as a source of accountable government, and the role of state capacity in fostering democratic governance. Persson currently runs the project The Power of Ideas: New Perspectives on State Capacity and Public Goods Provision in Emerging Democracies (financed by the Swedish Research Council). Together with Marina Nistotskaya she is moreover responsible for a recently finalized evaluation of The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency's efforts to reduce corruption in partner countries (at the request of The Expert Group for Aid Studies). Within the framework of a collaboration with Ecorys, and at the request of European Commission, Persson is moreover the content lead of the project "Consultancy, technical assistance and support in the field of fight against and prevention of corruption" (2023-2027).
Persson’s research appears in, among other venues, Governance, Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Politics, and at Palgrave Macmillan and Oxford University Press. In addition to her academic research, Persson has served as an advisor and consultant to such organizations as The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), OECD/DAC, Transparency International, The Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA), UNCDF, Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD), Swedish Tax Agency, Swedish National Audit Office, and Swedish Mapping, Cadastral, and Land Registration Authority. She has moreover served as a board member (2021-2024) and Elected Chair (2023-2024) of TI Sweden.
Teaching and tutoring
Persson teaches both at the undergraduate and graduate level and is also the course coordinator of the undergraduate course Applied Qualitative Research Methods, Problems and Design (SF2323), as well as of part of the course Metod och Uppsatssamordning (SK1313). At both these courses, she also teaches research design and qualitative methods. She moreover serves as a supervisor at the undergraduate as well as graduate level.
Selected publications
Persson, Anna. Forthcoming 2026. “Corruption.” In Kjær, Anne Mette, Khisa, Moses, Ndlovu, Alecia (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of African Politics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Persson, Anna, Boräng, Frida, & Carlitz, Ruth. 2025. “The Power of Ideational Reach: A New Approach to State Capacity,” Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 38(3).
Hallonsten, Olof & Persson, Anna (eds.). 2024. Kontinuitet och förändring: Essäer om spårbundenhet i samhället. Timbro Förlag.
Persson, Anna. 2024. "Korruptionens spårbundenhet och den sociala ingenjörskonstens begränsningar." In Olof Hallonsten & Anna Persson (eds.), Kontinuitet och förändring: Essäer om spårbundenhet i samhället. Timbro Förlag.
Hallonsten, Olof & Persson, Anna. 2024. "Introduktion." In Olof Hallonsten & Anna Persson (eds.), Kontinuitet och förändring: Essäer om spårbundenhet i samhället. Timbro Förlag.
Persson, Anna, Worth, Mark, & Jeney, Petra. 2024. High-Risk Areas of Corruption in the EU: A Mapping and In-Depth Analysis. European Commission: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Publications Office of the European Union.
Nistotskaya, Marina, Buker, Hayden, Grimes, Marcia, Persson, Anna, D’Arcy, Michelle, Rothstein, Bo, & Gafuri, Adea. 2024. Evidence‐Based Anti‐Corruption? Evaluation of Sida’s Efforts to Reduce Corruption in Partner Countries. Report 2024:05 to The Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA).
Persson, Anna. 2021. “Bringing Politics Back In: Ethnic Fractionalization, Quality of Government, and Public Goods Provision Revisited.” In Bågenholm, Andreas et al. (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Quality of Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Persson, Anna, and Rothstein, Bo. 2019. "Lost in Transition: A Bottom-Up Perspective on Hybrid Regimes." Annals of Comparative Democratization 17(3): 10-12.
Persson, Anna, Rothstein, Bo, and Teorell Jan. 2019. “Getting the Basic Nature of Systemic Corruption Right.” Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions 32 (4): 799-810.
Persson, Anna, and Sjöstedt, Martin. 2018. “Den svaga staten: demokrati och förvaltning i utvecklingsländer.” In Carl Dahlström (Ed.), Politik som organisation: förvaltningens grundproblem, 6th edition, Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Persson, Anna. 2017. “The Modern State: Characteristics, Capabilities, and Consequences.” In Burnell, Peter, Rakner, Lise, and Randall, Vicky (Eds.), Politics in the Developing World, 5th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Persson, Anna, and Sjöstedt, Martin. 2015. “The Political and Historical Origins of Good Government: How Social Contracts Shape Elite Behavior.” In Carl Dahlström and Lena Wängnerud (Eds.), Elites, Institutions, and the Quality of Government, Palgrave MacMillan.
Persson, Anna, and Rothstein Bo. 2015. “It’s My Money: Why Big Government May Be Good Government.” Comparative Politics 47(2): 231-249.
Persson, Anna, Rothstein, Bo, and Teorell, Jan. 2013. “Why Anti-Corruption Reforms Fail – Systemic Corruption as a Collective Action Problem.” Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions 26(3): 449-471.
Persson, Anna, and Sjöstedt, Martin. 2012. “Responsive and Responsible Leaders: A Matter of Political Will?” Perspectives on Politics 10(3): 617-632.
Persson, Anna, and Sjöstedt, Martin. 2012. “State Legitimacy and the Corruptibility of Leaders.” In Bo Rothstein and Sören Holmberg (Eds.), Good Government: The Relevance of Political Science. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edwar Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Persson, Anna, Rothstein, Bo, and Teorell Jan. 2012. “Rethinking the Nature of the Grabbing Hand: The Collective Action Problem of Systemic Corruption.” In Bo Rothstein and Sören Holmberg (Eds.), Good Government: The Relevance of Political Science. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edwar Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Persson, Anna. 2008. The Institutional Sources of Statehood – Assimilation, Multiculturalism, and Taxation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Doctoral dissertation in political science, included as number 111 in the Series Göteborg Studies in Politics, edited by Bo Rothstein, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg (ISBN: 978-91-89246-36-2, ISSN: 0346-5942).
Articles and opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines, as well as media participation
Interviewed on ”Vårdsektorn högriskområde för korruption,” Vetenskapsradion, Sveriges Radio, April 3, 2025.
Interviewed on ”Så mycket kostar korruption – ”Skulle kunna utrota världshungern”,” Vetenskapsradion, Sveriges Radio, April 2, 2025.
Presentation and panel discussion on Hur kan biståndet bekämpa korruption?, SVT Forum, November 12, 2024
Investigative journalistic article “Företag som bygger Västlänken utreds för korruption.” Göteborgsposten (GP), June 7, 2022 (co-authored with Hedvig Nittve).
Interviewed for the article To Keep Putin and His Oligarchs Afloat, It Takes a System, The New York Times, The Interpreter, May 11, 2022
Expert commentator in Juniornyheterna Special: Europas sista diktatur, Sveriges Radio, August 14, 2020
Esaiasson, Peter, Persson, Anna, and Winqvist, Johanna. 2019. "Gårdstensmodellen är ingen mirakelkur." GP Debatt, March 1st, 2019
Persson, Anna. 2012. "Vässa åtgärder mot korruption." Sydsvenskan Opinion, Aktuella frågor, December 5th, 2012
Outreach (consultancies, seminars, lectures, talks, etc.)
Sida. Development of the course "Corruption in Academic Research." December, 2021.
Sida. Bildning & Debatt. Talk and panel discussion on " Quality of Government (QoG), Democracy & Development," November, 2021.
Swedish Tax Agency. OIP-dagen 2021. Talks on "The Importance of Quality of Government" (Vikten av god samhällsstyrning) samt "How get Quality of Government?" (Hur få god samhällsstyrning?), September, 2021.
Sida. Launch of Myndighetsnavet at Myndighetsforum. Talk on "The Importance of Well-functioning Political Institutions (QoG) (Vikten av välfungerande samhällsinstitutioner (QoG))," March 2021.
Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Panel discussion on "Rethinking Anti-Corruption Reform: Diagnosis v. Remedy" (with Paul Heywood, Senada Selo Sabic, Jasmin Mujanovic and Aleksandar Brezar), conference "Time to Act: Reality of Anti-corruption Policies," Sarajevo, November 2019.
Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina. TI School of Integrity, "The Electoral Roots of Corruption: A Dynamic Approach to Hybrid Regimes," Sarajevo, November 2019.
Stockholm Senior University, "The Problem of Corruption (Korruption som samhällsproblem)," Stockholm, November 2019.
University of Gothenburg, panel discussion on "Global Cooperation in a Polarized Time" (with Ulrika Modéer, Eva Ekelund, Efraim Gomez, Annica Kronsell, and Per Nordlund), Gothenburg, October 2019.
Peru's Supreme Audit Institution, "CAII 2018, Preventing Corruption: From a Reactive to a Proactive State," Lima, December 2018.
Policy Dialogue Day at the University of Gothenburg, "The Democratic Roots of Corruption,” Gothenburg, May 2018.
The Swedish Mapping, Cadastral, and Land Registration Authority & Sida, Lectures within International Training Programme (ITP) on "Applied Land Governance", Gävle, September, 2017.
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, "Systemic Corruption as a Social Dilemma (Utbredd korruption som ett socialt dilemma)," Stockholm, May 2015.
ICLD & UNCDF, Programme planning, lectures, and mentoring within International Training Programme (ITP) on "Towards Local Democracy and Local Development Through Local Government," Gothenburg, Lusaka, Kigali, and Kampala, 2011-2013.
ICLD, Lectures and mentoring within International Training Programme (ITP) on "Decentralization and Good Governance with a Gender Perspective," Gothenburg, 2010-2012.
Samhällsvetenskapens dag at the University of Gothenburg, "The State and the (Very) Private Sphere: HIV as a Political Problem(Staten och den (väldigt) privata sfären: HIV som ett statsvetenskapligt problem), (with Martin Sjöstedt), Gothenburg, October 2011.
Göteborg Book Fair, Panel discussion on "Foreign Aid and Corruption" (with Molly Lien, Martin Sjöstedt, Nicholas Charron, and Monica Bauhr), Gothenburg, September 2011.
The Swedish National Audit Office, "The Logic of Corruption in Sweden and in the Developing World (Korruptionens logik i Sverige och i utvecklingsländer)," Stockholm, January 2011.
The Swedish National Audit Office, "The Drivers of Corruption: Why Some Countries Are More Corrupt than Others (Korruptionens drivkrafter: Varför är vissa länder mer korrupta än andra?)," Stockholm, April 2011.