How do populism erode moral standards?

As we have seen in recent years, rule by a populist party can lead to the deep polarisation of an electorate. But it also erodes the ethical structure of political life.

Unable to defeat populists through common methods, traditional parties have begun to imitate their opponents, leaving voters with no alternative but to embrace cynicism.

In many countries, even supporters of the anti-mugist parties have begun consciously accepting pathological behaviour, breaking rules, and even illegal acts on the part of their elected political representatives.

After the Greek Law, which thinks that bad money casts out good money, opposition forces increasingly feel compelled to prepare schemes and cheat in order to win. As a result, scruples politicians will find themselves at a disadvantage. With more and more voters concluding that populists should be defeated in their game, opposition parties face a choice between protecting their ethical standards and saving liberal democracy.

Under these conditions, politicians should not worry about losing their supporters' trust if they violate the party's service law. But it tends to favour populists already in power.

Hence, the ruling party Law and Justice ( Poland and Fidesz in Hungary have enjoyed a degree of immunity unprecedented by political scandals.

The gap between corruption on behalf of the side and corruption in the individual's interest is essential. In Poland, PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, thanks to open nepotism and institutional corruption, but condemns other forms of self-interest. PiS officials are employed routinely by state-owned companies, but provided they donate part of their income to the party.

And, Kaczynski himself reportedly has closed an agreement with an Austrian businessman to build two high towers on land owned by a firm linked to the PiS. In contrast, when it was found that Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo had paid her ministers equivalent rewards with the wages of 10 months, Kaczynski demanded that the money be donated to charity and enabled through legislation lowering parliamentary wages and high government officials.

Polish MPs now earn about 1,800 euros a month (the members of the European Parliament earn about 8,800 euros), which is good for the party's image but not so good for preventing corruption.

Recently, Kaczynski forced the resignation of a longtime political ally, Seim's Marshal (parliament), Marek Kuchczynski, following revelations that he had used a government plane for private travel. Kaczynski understands that PPS supporters will accept corruption <x0 institutional> that benefits the party, but not corruption that benefits the individual.

When a politician adopts money or misuse of government resources (as Kuchczynski did), voters can see such acts do not benefit them.

But when a politician is found to have offered bribes or given jobs in exchange for donations to the party, voters can see how these corrupt relations can advance “the greatest good”.

Me and Przemieslaw Sadura from Warsaw University we have just published studies on Polish voters' attitudes a month before Poland's parliamentary elections on 13 October. Our findings reveal the degree to which cynicism has captured the Polish electorate. Consider, for example, the following representative responses from a PPS voter:

Should politicians like Kaczynski be forgiven for engaging in corruption in some measure?

Not necessarily. If we're talking about individual material benefits, then no, he's done.

What if he was not to benefit himself but his mother?

If it were for the party, for greater good, then yes, I would tend to forgive it.

For the party, not for himself?

Yeah.

Individual corruption can be bad not only because it violates moral standards but also because it harms the party's image.

It is easy to imagine that supporters of US President Donald Trump or British Prime Minister Boris Johnson would offer similar answers.

Throughout the West, political cynicism is raising policy rules and creating two distinct ethical spheres. Acts that voters would consider unacceptable in most other areas of life suddenly become virtuous in a partisan political context.

Politicians like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Kaczynski began their career in the overall course and embraced populism as a means to realise their political ambitions. But politicians who were populist from the beginning have resulted in more scandalous results.

Trump and Matteo Salvin of the League party in Italy, for example, make legitimacy out of the scandal. By antagonising elites, media, foreign institutions (over all European) and judiciary and violating rates, they have claimed the robe of <x0-originality”.

Political scandals, however many, do not harm such figures. Rather, they make them martyrs. Opposition parties have fewer opportunities to engage in public corruption because they are not in power. But if they can find a way to bring down ruling populists by following down low roads, evidence suggests that their supporters will not judge too strongly. /Project Syndicate/ BIRN/