Individual Wrong or Systemic Failure? Moral Judgements About the Integrity of Politicians in the Wake of Dutch Integrity Scandals

Willianne Van Ginkel-Kempenaar and Toon Kerkhoff ()
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Willianne Van Ginkel-Kempenaar: Stichting Landmerk, Herenstraat 43, 3512 KB Utrecht, The Netherlands
Toon Kerkhoff: Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University, Turfmarkt 99, 2511 DP The Hague, The Netherlands

Administrative Sciences, 2024, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: This article focuses on moral judgements about the integrity of politicians expressed by various actors in public opinion in the wake of Dutch integrity scandals. The research assesses the link between a supposed act on the one hand and moral judgements of the actors involved on the other in an effort to improve our understanding of how political integrity is perceived and how it is used in public and political debate. This exploratory study takes three Dutch case studies of supposed conflicts of interest. Each case offers a view on judgements concerning political integrity from various media outlets, focused on three different levels: judgements of personal integrity, role integrity and political system integrity. This novel theoretical construct serves to see whether and, if so, how moral judgements about political integrity are linked to systemic (dis)satisfaction with government and politics. In addition—and focusing on the Dutch context only—the article assesses how people’s supposed place on a political ideological spectrum from left to right might influence their moral judgement. The article underscores the theoretical notion that the meaning of political integrity is inherently subject to varied interpretation and context of place and time. This also has important practical implications for managing and improving political integrity.

Keywords: moral judgements; political integrity; integrity violations; integrity scandals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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