Throughout history, politicians have broken moral and ethical norms to advance their own interests. Corruption warps policies, and the public loses out on things like good schools, decent hospitals, and adequate infrastructure. The United States has witnessed these problems many times over the years, from the robber barons and industrial conglomerates that gobbled up public resources for their own gain in the Gilded Age to the current administration’s brazen attempts at open corruption.
Political scandals are a consequence of such misbehavior, and are often the result of people uncovering it through journalism. As such, they have important political and social consequences. Sometimes they lead to resignations and other formal reactions; other times, people debate the merits of a particular violation (e.g., Kumlin & Esaiasson, 2012). Other times they influence citizens’ satisfaction with democracy (Bowler & Karp, 2004) and trust in politicians’ abilities to solve problems in a transparent and efficient way (von Sikorski, Knoll, & Matthes, 2018).
The vast majority of studies on the effects of political scandals rely on correlational designs with survey data. However, there are several methodological issues that limit the validity of these analyses. In addition, many of the studies do not sufficiently consider the possible long-term influences of political scandals on processes of accountability and specific trust judgments (for exceptions see Miller Vonnahme, 2014; Mitchell, 2013).
This article aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of political scandal by reviewing and analyzing existing empirical research. It finds that scandals have a wide range of effects on citizens’ evaluations of politicians, but that these effects vary widely depending on five central moderators: politician characteristics and behavior, citizens’ prior attitudes, context, and the type of scandal.
About the Author
