Crime and punishment the British way: how the expenses scandal affected the 2010 general election

A study by Valentino Larcinese examines the channels through which voters keep politicians accountable. Using the expenses scandal as a source of data, he finds that it was scandal-related press coverage which affected negatively the 2010 performance of standing MPs. Punishment in the ballot box, however, was relatively small and generally not sufficient to remove MPs involved in the scandal from their seat. One of the reasons why in general elections the punishment of corrupt politicians can be modest is because ideology matters and many voters may still prefer a corrupt politician to an ideologically more distant alternative.