The Watergate scandal of the early 1970s forced Richard Nixon to resign as president. Since then, a variety of political scandals have shaped the news and shaken the public’s trust in politicians and government.
From sex offenses to misappropriation of office funds, the private actions of politicians that become public scandals reflect a complex interplay between actions, contexts, and interpretations. In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, we are joined by Charles Hunt and Jaclyn Kettler to explore political scandal in the United States. The two are Political Science professors at Boise State University and co-hosts of a podcast called Scandalized, which unpacks different political scandals from American history.
They reveal new insights into the role of political polarization in shaping the process by which misbehavior becomes public scandal. Specifically, they show that the higher the level of polarization in a political system, the more incentives there are to expose members of an opposing party to scandal, or even to suggest the idea of misbehavior on the basis of flimsy evidence. This, they argue, can lead to a loss of public trust in politicians and an overall decline in democracy (von Sikorski et al., 2018).
The authors also highlight the role of political journalism in bringing about some of these scandals. By uncovering unethical behavior, journalists help to hold politicians accountable for their actions and bring about reforms that can benefit all citizens. They also provide a crucial service by providing voters with the information they need to make informed political choices.