International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2019

 

Corruption scandals, scandal clusters and contemporary politics in New Zealand (Abstract)

 

Patrick Barrett and Daniel Zirker

 

While New Zealand enjoys a widely held view that it symbolises the qualities of a corruption-free democracy, over the past several years corruption scandals have increased markedly in number and intensity. It appears that corruption is becoming a part of the language of politics in New Zealand in a new way. This article explores this proposition with a particular focus on the incidence and character of corruption scandals during politically significant periods. It is an exploratory and admittedly impressionistic analysis that surveys the incidence of corruption scandals between 2000 and 2016. The article examines media reports of corruption scandals and the apparent and periodic appearance of the accumulation of corruption scandals, or scandal clusters. The primary goal is to explore whether such clusters are evident in media reports, whether these appear to be qualitatively different in concentration and intensity, and if so, to ask what new questions this raises for further research.