Scandal Fatigue?: Scandal Elections and Satisfaction With Democracy in Europe 1977–2007
British Journal of Political Science, Volume 42, Issue 2, pp. 263–282, 2012
45 Pages Posted: 24 Sep 2018
Date Written: October 10, 2011
Abstract
Data from 19 West European countries suggest parliamentary elections are increasingly associated with scandals. Major scandal elections were unusual in the late 1970s whereas today they make up 40-50 percent. Multilevel analyses of Eurobarometer data, furthermore, reveal that scandal elections once had negative net effects on satisfaction with democracy. However, as scandals became more common — at different rates in different countries — the negative effect has withered away. This “scandal fatigue” process appears driven by changes in scandal material, rather than by changes in citizens’ reactions to a given type of material. In particular, highly “generalizable” scandals — involving several politicians and parties — are still events that really matter, but these have not become markedly more common. The concluding section discusses the possibility that the increasing incidence of scandals has created a more critical approach to scandal material. As scandals accumulate, citizens may become more prone to ponder the relevance of a story and the motives of the messenger.
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