Populists and Political Scandals: Kiss of Death or Elixir of Life
Co-authored by Tsveta Petrova and Paula Ganga
Paula Ganga, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Duke Kunshan University
Visiting Fellow, Stanford University
http://www.paulaganga.com/
Abstract: Ethno-populists often come to power criticizing the establishment for being plagued by corruption but
after assuming office, the ethno-populists themselves frequently become implicated in corruption and other scandals.
We use an original scandal-event dataset compiled from traditional media sources from Hungary and Poland
spanning the period of 2000 to 2022 and we find little evidence that ethno-populist incumbents have been hurt by
the scandals exposing their wrongdoing. Instead, we document a significant, short-term rally effect among their
supporters. Media pluralism, robust opposition, and a bad economy diminish this effect. In contrast, scandals
implicating the opponents of ethno-populists boost support for these parties.

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