Misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties: A party loyalty dilemma

Abstract

What is the nature of misconduct and whistleblowing in political parties? While there is a large literature on whistleblowing in other organisational settings, we are yet to understand how these accountability processes work in parties. Using a survey of 1165 Swedish politicians, we show that misconduct in parties primarily relates to serious structural organisational problems and inappropriate personal conduct. Witnessed misconduct is reported around half of the time and this is chiefly done through internal means, which are less costly for the party. We also test expectations derived from research on party unity and demonstrate that officials from incumbent parties with greater party discipline and loyalty blow the whistle to a lesser extent, though this pattern does not hold for the occurrence of negative consequences and is driven mainly by the Social Democrats. Our results suggest that whistleblowing presents politicians with a loyalty dilemma, the outcome of which is determined largely by party factors.