A political scandal tarnishes the reputation of politicians and institutions. It can lead to the loss of public trust, prompt calls for reforms, and reinforce the importance of transparency in democracy. Yet, the impact of a scandal is highly variable: While some voters may become deeply cynical, others can rebound quickly by shifting their loyalties or switching parties.
Whether or not scandals have lasting consequences depends on how they are handled, and whether or not their accusations reflect actual misbehavior. This is because scandals are not simply about bad behavior: They also reflect the political calculus of the accusers.
To understand this, we examine the political scandal that erupted around Clean Hands, the Italian government’s corruption scandal. As a result of this scandal, citizens lost confidence in their leaders and institutions, and many politicians were forced to resign.
While this was an important and necessary event, it was not a complete reflection of the actual misbehavior. Instead, the real culprit was a corrupt political machine whose members were incentivized to expose other members of their own party and to falsely accuse them of misconduct. This study shows that political polarization makes politicians’ decisions to omit or expose information about their own misbehavior more complicated, and undermines voters’ ability to determine the truth. As a result, it is no surprise that more scandals are produced. This article provides a new insight about how and why scandals occur, which has implications for future research on political misbehavior.
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