A political scandal involves public revelations of corruption, dishonesty, or ethical lapses by public officials. Greed and lust for power are common motives, but a range of other factors can contribute to a scandal including mendacity, obfuscation, obsession, moral bankruptcy, misplaced loyalty or trust, naivete, or even just a lapse of good judgment. Scandals can damage democratic institutions and governance by eroding citizen confidence in elected officials and government processes. Such disillusionment can exacerbate already strained relationships between the state and citizens, causing people to question whether their government can be trusted (von Sikorski, Knoll, & Matthes, 2020).
In addition to the norm-violating misconduct itself, scandals can also be the result of the abuse of political office for private gain, often via nepotism or cronyism – the use of government position to favor family members or friends, or by using public funds for privately beneficial purposes (patronage). The brazen transactional style of President Trump has warped perceptions of what constitutes corruption by making it seem normal to reward one’s buddies while punishing adversaries.
A common view of scandal is that it serves a functional purpose in less-democratic states by alerting citizens to corrupt or otherwise unsavory circumstances. Another view is that media sensationalism exploits a natural human tendency to respond positively to negative news by framing it as a scandal, and that the negative effects of scandal can be offset by the positive effect of preexisting evaluations of candidates (Taber & Lodge, 2006). However, research informed by motivated reasoning theory suggests that voters’ evaluations of a candidate may buffer against incongruent incoming information and that knowledge of a scandal can actually decrease general political trust.
