POLITICAL SCANDALS

One of the reasons why the United States and Great Britain may have more political scandals is because they have a more aggressive press corps. Another reason is that these two nations still partially subscribe to a Victorian sex code which makes the sex scandal possible.

However, serious students of European politics know that continental Europe is simply less corrupt than Britain and the U.S. There are many reasons for this: the corporate special interest system is much less developed; voter participation and democracy are greater; political awareness of the public is higher; political processes are more open, and business decisions are as well. (For example, both management and labor send voting representatives to each other's board meetings.)

The result is a remarkably scandal-free government. Banker-professor Ernst van der Beugel says of his native Holland: "The country is so well run it can do without a government."¹ Dutch editor Franz Peeters complains about the lack of scandals to report in his country: "I would be content with the American political system where a senator can really show up some scandals."² European expert Flora Lewis writes: "The [Danish] people are proud of their country's achievement of social justice, with a decent standard of living for all and no flagrant preserves of privilege. In fact, the main problem of the Social Democrats is that they have just about run out of wrongs to right at home, more or less as in Sweden and Norway."³ Having reformed most of their society's problems, the Scandinavians are now reforming their reforms!

Sadly, it could be that the U.S. and Great Britain have a more aggressive press corps for a reason.

Return to Overview
___________________
¹ Flora Lewis, Europe: Road to Unity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 266.
² Ibid., p. 266.
³ Ibid., p. 239.