Political scandal exposes unethical or illegal behavior among political figures and can erode trust in government institutions. When political leaders engage in misconduct, voters lose confidence in the integrity of their parties and government as a whole. This loss of trust can lead to lower voter turnout and increased cynicism toward future elections and governmental processes. Scandals have a profound impact on the political landscape, driving calls for reform and shaping public discourse around ethical conduct in politics.
While incidents of political corruption have occurred throughout American history, a particular pattern has emerged over the past several decades. Harmful Supreme Court decisions, the erosion of norms, and brazenly transactional approaches to power have accelerated this trend. In the short term, the public can demand an end to these abuses by rejecting corrupt deals and demanding accountability through reporting and political pressure. In the long term, Congress should restore checks and balances and anticorruption guardrails that the current administration has dismantled, including revamping campaign finance rules to close loopholes allowing ultra-wealthy donors to dominate politics and expanding ethics reforms to ensure that politicians are accountable to their constituents.
While a major scandal can radically alter the political landscape, many smaller scandals fail to generate public outrage or catalyze reforms. This is despite the fact that such events are often just as damaging for democracy as large-scale corruption. New research by Wioletta Dziuda and William G. Howell at UChicago reveals that the production of political scandals is driven by polarization. The more polarized a political environment, the more likely it is that the aligned party of a politician will suppress evidence of their wrongdoing and the opposing party will fabricate accusations to damage their opponent. The result is that political polarization accelerates the production of scandal, incentivizes misbehavior by politicians, and diminishes political discourse, to the detriment of voters.