Political scandal refers to the discovery of unethical or illegal behaviors committed by government officials and politicians. These events can affect citizen perceptions of the government and its leaders, resulting in calls for accountability or reform. Media coverage often plays a crucial role in exposing these scandals, which can significantly impact how citizens evaluate their politicians and the overall political climate.
Although extensive research has been conducted on the effects of scandals, there remains an important gap in our understanding of how these phenomena work. This article seeks to bridge this gap by investigating the dynamic processes that create and influence political scandals. To do so, we use a cross-disciplinary approach integrating perspectives from communication research (e.g., Kiousis, 2003), political science (e.g., Basinger, 2012), and political psychology/political economy (e.g., Isolatus & Almonkari, 2014).
We focus on the concept of scandalization, which refers to the process through which norm transgressions by politicians and institutions are framed as scandalous, and how such scandalous information is subsequently disseminated and mediated by news outlets and other actors. We also examine the specific ways in which politicians themselves can use strategic communication to shape the salience of their transgressions and thereby influence their effect on voters’ judgments and evaluations.
We find that polarization has a key role to play in scandal production. The greater the ideological disagreement between two parties, the more incentives a politician’s aligned party has to shelter the politician from accusations of misconduct, while the opposing party has an incentive to make such allegations even if they are based on flimsy evidence. This dynamic creates an incestuous cycle that encourages misbehavior among politicians, corrodes the value of political discourse, and ultimately makes voters less well informed.