Making words harmless: Why politicians survive character assassination attacks
| Published date | 01 February 2025 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13691481241264980 |
| Author | István Miskolczy,Sergiu Gherghina |
| Date | 01 February 2025 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/13691481241264980
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2025, Vol. 27(1) 199 –219
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/13691481241264980
journals.sagepub.com/home/bpi
Making words harmless: Why
politicians survive character
assassination attacks
István Miskolczy and Sergiu Gherghina
Abstract
Character assassination, a specific type of negative campaigning, has been intensely investigated
through the lenses of the circumstances and content of attacks. However, we know little about
why some politicians survive and others do not. The present article addresses this gap in the
literature and identifies the reasons for political survival following character assassination attempts.
It compares 20 cases from the last two decades and uses qualitative comparative analysis to test
the effect of five potential causes: power relations, gender, response, media coverage and the
complexity of the attack. The results indicate that male politicians who face attacks from the same
level of power, those who adjust their response to the attack’s complexity, and cases where the
media do not extensively cover the attack all have higher chances of survival. The findings broaden
the understanding of the character assassination dynamics and ways of protection against it.
Keywords
attacks, elections, politicians, response, survival
Introduction
‘Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger’ or ‘[Hillary] does not have the stam-
ina [to be president]’. Among others, this is what the candidates of the 2016 US presiden-
tial elections said about each other during the debates. Both accusations were part of a
broader assassination campaign aiming to destroy the credibility of the opponent. The
two assassination campaigns ended differently for them: Trump survived and got elected
as president, while Clinton lost the elections and disappeared from the front lines of US
politics. Examples of character assassination can be found in antiquity despite the emer-
gence of the term in the 20th century in the United States. Over time, Roman emperors,
Catholic popes, French royals, Soviet politicians, British prime ministers, and American
Supreme Court judges and businessmen have been subject to, and in some cases, victims
of, character assassination attempts (Icks and Shiraev, 2014). Character assassination is a
deliberate attempt to seriously damage the public reputation of another person, so that
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Corresponding author:
Sergiu Gherghina, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Glasgow, 42 Bute
Gardens, G12 8RT, Glasgow, UK.
Email: sergiu.gherghina@glasgow.ac.uk
1264980BPI0010.1177/13691481241264980The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsMiskolczy and Gherghina
research-article2024
Original Article
200The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 27(1)
their chances of success become minimal (Samoilenko, 2021; Shiraev et al., 2022). It
applies to individuals, not to groups. This very specific type of negative campaigning has
been applied to eliminate competition in politics. There is extensive research about the
character assassination of politicians, the characteristics and processes of character assas-
sination, and the messages used in attempts (Berti and Loner, 2023; Johnson, 2021;
Shiraev et al., 2022). Studies also refer broadly to political scandals associated with char-
acter assassinations (Herrick, 2000; Newmark et al., 2019) and explore the effects of
character assassination on audiences or on the attackers (Schultz and Pancer, 1997;
Schumacher-Rutherford and Muddiman, 2021; Skaperdas and Grofman, 1995). Despite
this burgeoning literature, the survival of targets has rarely been investigated.
This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature and to identify why some politicians
survive character assassination attempts while others do not. To this end, it focuses on 20
cases of individual politicians subjected to character assassination, which were selected from
the Character Assassination and Reputation Politics Research Lab (CARP). The character
assassination attempts occurred between 2000 and 2023 and include those against national
presidents, prime ministers, presidential nominees, parliamentarians, state governors, and
mayors. Our analysis covers politicians who were candidates in an election at least once.
When a politician overcomes the effects of a character assassination attempt, we consider
this to represent survival. For example, if the character assassination was directed against a
politician in office, political survival means their ability to stay in office (Rottinghaus, 2014).
If it was directed against a politician not holding an elected office, political survival may be
measured by approval ratings (Bueno de Mesquita et al., 2005) and whether they managed to
keep their party positions or were fired or forced to resign (Rottinghaus, 2014). We test the
effects of politicians’ power relations, gender, response, media coverage, and the complexity
of the attack on politicians’ survival. We use qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), which
is appropriate for a medium-N research design (Ragin, 2008).
The contributions of our work are twofold. At a scientific level, understanding these
effects is important because it informs us about the limitations of negative campaigning
and allows prediction of what happens in political careers. We show that character assas-
sination attempts produced the intended outcome in half of the past instances. As such,
this specific type of negative campaigning resulted in political survival under specific
circumstances related to the nature of the attack, the target’s characteristics, and media
reactions to the attack. At a societal level, the study identifies the ways in which politi-
cians can counteract attacks. In a context in which the number of character assassination
attempts per election campaign has gradually increased over the past two decades (Shiraev
et al., 2022), these results indicate the conditions that make politicians vulnerable to
attacks. Political parties, campaign managers, and communication specialists will gain
knowledge that could equip them to ensure the political survival of the targets.
The next section reviews the literature and formulates several testable hypotheses. Then,
we present the research design with an emphasis on the case selection, variable measure-
ment, and the methods of data collection and analysis. The fourth section includes the main
findings with insights about the analysed cases. The conclusion discusses the main implica-
tions of the results for the broader field of study and suggests avenues for future research.
Character assassination and political survival
Character assassination is a public attempt to destroy the personal traits of a politician in
the eyes of voters (Johnson, 2021). To effectively do so, it must stem from an
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting