Perceptions of Political Corruption in State Government

This study examines public perceptions of state level political corruption in the United States using original data from two national public opinion surveys conducted in 2014 and 2022. Our analyses reveal several important insights about the underpinnings of state corruption perceptions. First, we find that perceptions of state corruption are modestly related to the actual state corruption context—people are able to connect their perceptions to reality. Second, consistent with previous research on partisanship, partisan biases play a substantial role in shaping perceptions of state level corruption, with people being much more likely to perceive corruption when the incumbent governor in their state is an out-partisan. Finally, the relationship between corruption perceptions and the state corruption context is not significantly moderated by political knowledge.