Political Science Research Idea: Measure the honesty of politicians
by phil on Saturday Nov 22, 2008 2:05 AM
Just like they have ideology ratings (i.e. "John Kerry is the 2nd most liberal Senator"), someone should come up with a scale that looks at politicians' promises and measures how well they fulfill them during their terms. This should be easier now with the Internet, since campaign platform promises are usually posted online.
Perhaps this kind of study is already being done.
Some potentially interesting questions afterward:
- What is the variation of honesty among politicians? Are they all relatively equally shady, or is there a good balance between really honest and really corrupt ones?
- How does the overall honesty change over time, and what factors cause that?
- Which party is more honest?
- What is the correlation between honesty, criminal indictments, and the current party in power?
