The Politics of Scandal: Power and Process in Liberal Democracies

Featuring through analytical discussions of such events as Watergate and Britain's Profumo affair, this book demonstrates that such political scandals are neither idiosyncratic to democratic regimes nor unique to the United States (or, for that matter, unique to world-weary Europeans). Nor are they, as some political scientists claimed some years ago, routine to those underdeveloped societies who have a high toleration of corruption. While sex and money play their part, at the heart of the great scandals of the post-war era lies the violation of process in the pursuit of power.