Uninformed Voters and Corrupt Politicians

Abstract

Repeated studies have shown that voters in mature democracies often do not punish corrupt politicians. The majority of existing explanations focus on institutions and their effect on voters’ ability to monitor politicians. In this study, I examine the differences between voters with varying levels of political awareness. The previous literature provides contradicting expectations, suggesting that both the low- and high-awareness voters may be less tolerant of corruption. Drawing on several decades of data on corruption and voting in the U.S. congressional elections, I find that the high-awareness voters are on average less likely than the less politically aware to vote for corrupt incumbents. This association appears to stem from the high-awareness voters’ greater knowledge and better understanding of incumbents’ involvement in corruption. However, partisanship mitigates the differences between the low- and high-awareness voters, as the highly aware are more partisan, and strong co-partisans are more willing to forgive corrupt incumbents.