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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Why study perceptions of politicians’ conduct?
- 2 Thinking about political ethics and conduct
- 3 Ethics and misconduct in British politics
- 4 Expectations and the scope of ethical judgements
- 5 How people judge political conduct
- 6 What people think of their elected politicians
- 7 The political effects of ethical evaluations
- 8 Changing public perceptions: problems and remedies
- 9 Concluding remarks
- Appendix: data and variable construction
- References
- Index
4 - Expectations and the scope of ethical judgements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Why study perceptions of politicians’ conduct?
- 2 Thinking about political ethics and conduct
- 3 Ethics and misconduct in British politics
- 4 Expectations and the scope of ethical judgements
- 5 How people judge political conduct
- 6 What people think of their elected politicians
- 7 The political effects of ethical evaluations
- 8 Changing public perceptions: problems and remedies
- 9 Concluding remarks
- Appendix: data and variable construction
- References
- Index
Summary
They should set out their political stall with a vision of society, and we’d grant them a lot of licence if they stick to that, and not shift with the wind.
(Male focus group participant, Egham)As we saw in the last chapter, money has been central to many of the major scandals that have rocked British politics, up to and including the 2009 expenses controversy. Money has never been considered the only cause of impropriety, of course, but it has long been viewed as the principal cause, and not without some justification. For similar reasons, protecting the integrity of political processes from the potentially corrupting influence of financial benefits has preoccupied legal and institutional attempts to promote high standards of conduct amongst Britain’s political elite.
In different ways, these two features of the wider ethical landscape – the inevitable cases of political misconduct and the narrow institutional focus on conflict of interest – both point to the subject of this chapter: citizens’ expectations of politicians’ behaviour. On the one hand, citizens’ expectations are likely to be a major factor in their evaluations and perceptions of political conduct and their response to alleged impropriety. Integrity evaluations are based in part on prior beliefs about what constitutes appropriate or desirable conduct. If we are fully to understand such judgements at an individual level, we obviously need to know something of the expectations that inform them. On the other hand, systematic variations in expectations may help to explain aggregate-level disaffection with the general conduct of politics. As has been reported in the context of other liberal democracies, citizens often disagree with political elites as to what is actually acceptable behaviour among elected representatives (Jackson and Smith 1996; McAllister 2000; Atkinson and Bierling 2005). Such disagreement may help to explain why politicians continue to engage in practices that violate popular norms of ethical behaviour. As Ian McAllister (2000: 35) notes: ‘If voters’ expectations about the proper conduct of politicians are continually frustrated, then it has the potential to undermine public confidence in the democratic system as a whole.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ethics and Integrity in British PoliticsHow Citizens Judge their Politicians' Conduct and Why it Matters, pp. 62 - 88Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015