The Role of Mediated Scandals in the Definition of Anti-corruption Norms

This chapter is interested in the politics of anti-corruption and more specifically at the role of scandals in the evolution of norms, here understood in their most formal sense. Scandals, as governance failures made visible, represent critical conjunctures where policymakers are pushed to regulate themselves. The external shock of the corruption scandal and the public demands that it generates create an opportunity to introduce new mechanisms to control the behavior of political representatives that would have been unlikely outside of these circumstances. Combining Kingdon’s multiple streams with an institutionalist approach, this chapter looks at the evolution of French elected officials’ financial disclosure obligations to interrogate the impact of specific events on anti-corruption norms