A New Ethical World of British MPs?

摘要

Following a series of financial scandals in the early 1990s, the House of Commons implemented new ethics rules and regulatory procedures, including a Code of Conduct, a ban on paid advocacy, a Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and a Select Committee on Standards and Privileges. In the absence of hard data about parliamentary integrity and the prevalence or otherwise of unethical parliamentary conduct, this paper explores the possible effects of the new rules and procedures on MPs' attitudes by comparing data from the 2005 British Representation Study with research conducted in the late 1980s. The evidence suggests that there has been some attitudinal change at the aggregate level, although it remains unclear how much of this change can be attributed directly to the Nolan reforms.