The devastating death toll of COVID in nursing homes made the crisis in the quality and regulation of long-term, institutional care unavoidable. This paper combines value ethics with disability theory to critique the funding, organization and oversight of long-term care in the United States and Sweden. Additional attention is given to home care alternatives and the emergent Buutzorg care model developed in the Netherlands.

I have been asked by the Dutch State Commission on the Rule of Law1 to conduct a literature review of the most important insights within academia on the relationship between integrity, appointments and ancillary positions in political-administrative networks and the various state powers in particular. The 'citizens' perspective' is central, that is: to what extent can procedures of appointments and ancillary positions have consequences for (a lack of) integrity of public administration as such (e.g. as a result of the appearance of partiality, unequal access to positions or the emergence of an 'us-versus-them' democracy or 'old boys network'). The literature review aims to provide the committee with a concise and systematic overview of the literature as a basis for their own empirical investigation of any rule of law imbalances.

The paper for EGPA consists of two parts. The first part of the research aims to provide core literature on the meaning and interpretation of key concepts. This first concerns the meaning of political, official and administrative integrity. Integrity as a concept needs further interpretation and often means something different to different actors in the political-administrative and social debate. Second, it is about the meaning and interpretation of the concepts of ancillary positions and appointments (including recruitment). When is something a formal ancillary position or not, how does appointment and recruitment take place at all, and what is the current state of affairs regarding procedures and filling ancillary positions and appointments for the three state powers (i.e. the legislative, executive and judiciary)? Third, it involves providing insight into literature on a whole range of intertwined concepts, such as "revolving door construction," "nepotism," "merit vs patronage recruitment," "networking" and "network corruption," "politicization of governance and political-official relations," "trust in and legitimacy of government," "(the appearance of) conflicts of interest," and "perceptions of corruption.

he second part of the literature review focuses on literature that addresses the aforementioned citizen perspective. Here, core literature will be discussed that deals with the possible and actual consequences of certain procedures of appointments and ancillary positions for (a lack of) integrity of public administration (in this: rule of law imbalance) as such. The literature review will have a theoretical-philosophical and an empirical component. The theoretical-philosophical component (possible consequences) will organize some key insights dealing with trust in and legitimacy of government in relation to systems and practices of recruitment, job design, and utility and necessity of separation of powers. The empirical component (the actual) will focus on research (in the Netherlands and abroad) in which concrete measurement has been made on issues such as improper influence by networks on appointments, on measured effects of the appearance of conflicts of interest on trust in and legitimacy of government, the influence by informal networks on the behavior of civil servants, administrators and politicians and the emergence of an us-versus-them system, and the effects of ‘old boys’ rotation of positions. The state committee will as such also gain some validated measurement tools for their own study.