Political scandals of the United States: Encyclopedia II - Political scandals of the United States - Systemic scandals

Political scandals of the United States - Systemic scandals

Not included in this article are pervasive systemic scandals, such as the role of money in the political process.

Political scandals of the United States - Campaign finance

Some supporters of grass roots democracy have called the dominance of campaign contribution money in the political process the "great scandal" of modern democracy. Details of this systemic scandal are well documented by the Federal Election Commission, the Center for Responsive Politics, and elsewhere. Thus, except for the more extreme or celebrated cases of outright quid-pro-quo bribery, the "normal" purchase of access and influence by means of political donations is not covered in this article.

Political scandals of the United States - Revolving door conflicts of interest

An increasing phenomenon is the facility with which government officials have come to move between serving in public office and working for private interests. Former members of Congress often join private lobbying firms upon leaving Congress; policymakers and other appointees to regulatory agencies are often selected from within the industries those agencies are charged with regulating, and then the "public servants" often quickly slip back into their private roles at the end of the appointment. Because private interests may well be at odds with the public interest, this situation has at times been widely viewed as a systemic political scandal. Rules designed to slow down this so-called "revolving door" process have had no substantial effect on this practice. And even some of the more celebrated instances of this type of conflict of interest, such as President Ronald Reagan's acceptance of a million dollar speaking fee from Japanese company, Fujisankei Communications Group, after leaving office, or large book advances for the Clintons, have come to be treated simply as routine practice rather than as "political scandals."

Political scandals of the United States - Corporate scandals including accounting scandals

Because of the close connection between certain politicians and certain corporations, some corporate accounting scandals that have come to light in recent years could reasonably be considered political scandals. For example, both the Enron scandal and the Harken Energy scandal implicated close associates of President George W. Bush. Occasionally a particular episode of corporate fraud will be treated as a "political scandal," but the widespread extent of corporate wrongdoing, and the systemic influence of corporate power on politics, would make it difficult to present a comprehensive account of all "political scandals" involving corporate misconduct.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Systemic scandals", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki