As the number of scandals related to politicians and public officials grows, scholars from many fields have studied their consequences for democracy. Researchers from communication (e.g., Kiousis, 2003), political science, psychology, sociology, and other crosscutting disciplines have investigated the aftermath of scandals through various lenses and with a wide range of methodological approaches. However, to date, no one study has systematically examined the entire literature on political scandal and its effects.
This article fills that void. It is a meta-analysis of seventy-eight studies that measure the effects of political scandal on citizens, politicians, and the public process. Two central outcome variables are explored: evaluative impacts on politicians and electoral consequences. Results generally show negative evaluative impacts for politicians exposed to political scandals. However, five central moderators – candidate characteristics, behaviors, prior attitudes, context, and scandal type – influence these evaluative impacts.
Political scandals can damage the democratic legitimacy of a society by making citizens feel like their government is corrupt and incompetent. Corruption erodes trust in government, which leads to declining citizen satisfaction with democracy (von Sikorski & Knoll, 2017) and increased voter apathy (Bowler & Karp, 2004).
This is especially true when politicians are willing to break norms for their own gain. For example, President Trump’s openly transactional approach to power warps perceptions of what counts as corruption, reinforcing the view that corruption is a normal part of politics and blurring the lines between the public and private spheres.