Customer Reviews

Dirty Little Secrets : The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics

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I first read this book a couple years ago and was very impressed with the thoroughness of the authors' research. They make some very forceful points but they provide all the evidence needed to back them up.

The chapter on Voter Fraud in particular is now quite timely. They point out that voter fraud is rampant throughout the U.S., but somehow the media rarely talks about it. Now everyone is shocked about the goings-on in the Presidential election in Florida, but if more people had acted on the findings in Dirty Little Secrets perhaps we'd have reformed things by now.

This book has an accurate title and inaccurate subtitle. It deals with dirty politics, not corruption. Innuendo that your opponent is a child molester is despicable and unethical, but it's not "corrupt." Buying and selling votes is "corrupt."

Why do I insist on the distinction? It's important because it affects how we think about reforming the system. Reforms addressing the role of money in politics are different than reforms addressing sleazy campaigns.

Though the authors wrongly mix corruption and dirty tricks throughout their book, their last chapter on reforms does a much better job distinguishing the two. It presents a pretty clear analysis of causes and effects, and the recommendations are pretty sensible.

The book rests on a series of stories about candidates Jones or Smith behaving badly. It must be admitted that these candidates and their staffs do behave badly indeed. But how typical are these examples? The book has no evidence that they are widespread, other than the fact that their interviewees said, "Everybody does it." Well, I am sure that not *everybody* does it, and even Sabato and Williams interviewed some people who don't do it. Any reformer might start with the honest politicians and think about how we can make more of them, rather than trying to make fewer dishonest politicians.

Why do candidates and staffs engage in dirty tricks? Sabato and Williams say that these tricks help them win. Do they? Sabato and Williams have no evidence other than the beliefs of their interviewees.

What does that tell us about our ethical heroes who refuse to engage in dirty tricks? Presumably, they do it because not doing dirty tricks help *them* win. Does ethical probity help a candidate win? Perhaps. Do the answers to these questions matter - - a lot - - for how we think about reforming the system? Almost certainly.

As these comments suggest, I found much of the book unsatisfactory in analytical terms. However, it's built on a great litany of dirty tricks. Chapter after chapter tells stories about both corruption and dirty tricks, and it's a real eye-opener despite my objections above.

Finally, the authors make much of the fact that the book is written by a journalist and a political scientist, presumably gaining from the strengths of each approach. However, the book reads like straight journalism, so it's not clear what, if anything, "political science" contributed. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I read this book about five years ago and am now reading it again. It's well-written, well-documented and as enjoyable the second time as it was the first. From vote fraud, to how they keep getting re-elected, it's all in this book. I highly recommend it.

I never actually read this book. I just used the summary for a report. Sorry.