Smutsiga politiker vid makten - en studie av medborgares förtroende för korrumperade politiker

Researchers in the field of political corruption generally expect voters in democratic states to lose trust in corrupted politicians. However, there are cases where corrupted politicians maintain their popularity, a phenomenon studied in this thesis. Focus lies on three cases of political corruption: the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been the subject of several judicial investigations and court cases; the impeached former president of Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas; and the German Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) involvement in a party funding scandal. The cases are chosen based on the method of agreement. Berlusconi, Paksas and CDU have all, in spite of their corrupt behaviour, kept or regained popular support among a large group of their country's citizens. This paradox is studied within the frames of the actor-structure model, in an explorative way. The study shows that a mixture of political culture; the state of the society where the corruption takes place; media coverage; money supply; and other politicians' actions influence the level of popular support. However, voters do not seem to accept political corruption per se, but the lack of relevant political alternatives provides them little other choice than to support these corrupted politicians and parties