Whether political corruption, tax evasion, or provocative utterances, political scandal exposes unethical and illegal behaviors that can derail public trust in politicians and the government. Yet, despite their widespread impact, few studies investigate the factors that determine when and how media-covered scandals occur.
In this Special Issue, a team led by UChicago’s Wioletta Dziuda and William G. Howell reveals new insights about the factors that shape scandal and its consequences for voters. Specifically, they find that scandals are a tool for the governing class to manipulate public opinion, and that their effects depend on the level of polarization in a political system.
During periods of high political polarization, the number of scandals increases but only for a particular type of scandal: partisan scandals in which one party accuses another of misbehavior. Moreover, the number of scandals that hurt the aligned politician’s reputation by revealing their misbehavior goes down while the number of scandals in which a politician is sheltered from damage by a partisan accusation (that is, the opposing party does not deny the accused behavior) goes up.
A key reason for this increase in partisan scandals is that politicians may use them strategically to gain competitive advantages. By highlighting the political costs of corrupt behavior, partisan scandals can prompt politicians to withdraw support from parties involved in scandals or even break ties entirely with them and become independents. Moreover, a scandal may prompt politicians to switch parties, a move that can have negative career consequences in the short term but ultimately benefit them in the long run.
