Political Corruption and the Ethical Judgments of American Citizens: Are Government Officials Held to a Higher Standard?

In this paper we consider whether citizens view corruption on the part of public officials to be more onerous than the same actions taken by “ordinary ” citizens. While some studies suggest that public officials are held to a higher standard, we find evidence in a survey experiment of a more democratic view of corruption, where citizens acting in their private interests are expected to be as honest and trustworthy as any public official. We also find evidence that citizens are attuned to the political environment in their assessments of corruption, with partisanship significantly conditioning expectations of public officials but not of citizens engaging in the same “corrupt ” practices