A scandal is public disclosure of bad behavior by a politician. Political scandals are often the result of politicians violating moral and ethical norms, but they can also be caused by economic scandals such as tax evasion or corruption or by provocative utterances. These private transgressions can be transformed into political scandal by the exploitation of voters’ emotions, political polarization and political party strategy. For example, when a politician’s party accuses him or her of misconduct and the politician vehemently denies the accusations, the scandal can have different effects than if the politician had been merely caught red-handed.
News media frequently report political scandals, with a variety of consequences. For example, a corruption scandal might cause the government to collapse and lead to early parliamentary dissolutions. A sex scandal might make a politician leave office. And a scandal about a political party might encourage citizens to withdraw their support and vote for other parties.
While scandals generally lead to negative evaluative effects on politicians, the extent of these effects depends on several central moderator variables such as citizens’ previous views and attitudes, their level of political trust and cynicism, their partisanship and the type of scandal (e.g., sex or swindles). Additionally, it is not clear whether scandalous information has the same impact on all politicians and political institutions, as some are more vulnerable to being swept away by scandal than others. These considerations can help to explain why some scandals have larger repercussions than others, and what the implications are for future research.
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