ABSTRACT

Until the 1990s, the main focus of research in political corruption was on authoritarian or developing countries.2 Periodically, corruption scandals cropped up in mature democracies; however, these were rarely central electoral issues that led to the downfall of governments. The turning point was the end of the Cold War and the subsequent fading of ideological left/right conflicts in most western democracies, giving political corruption the space on the political agenda to become one of the most salient issues of the last decade. Almost no democracy has been immune from high-level corruption scandals and this has contributed to reduced public confidence in parties and the demise of a number of political parties which had been dominant for a long time.3 In Italy, investigations of corruption led to the fall of the Christian Democratic-led coalition that had ruled since Second World War,4 in Britain accusations of ‘sleaze’ seriously weakened the reputation of the Major administration,5 and in Spain a string of corruption scandals contributed to the defeat of the Socialists after fourteen years in power.6