These essays demonstrate that political scandals in liberal democracies, and the stresses resulting from them, provide an excellent perspective for observing democratic political systems. Such scandals, contend the contributors, focus attention on the critical separation of the public from the private, and by their very nature, question the legitimacy of the democratic political process. Unlike virtually any other study of liberal democratic regimes, this one includes the United States as well as European and non-European nations by experts on the given countries. Chapters are devoted to the UK's Belligrano affair, West Germany's Flick case, Israel's Lavon affair, Italy's P2 Loge scandal, Austria's AKH scandal, the case of Sanjay and Indira Gandhi, Greenpeace in France, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police scandal in Canada, and Watergate. The editors offer an insightful and provocative introductory essay, synthesizing the findings of individual essays.

This interesting and original volume provides sound and enlightening interpretations of these scandals, highlighting the conflicts surrounding the public-private dichotomy, considering the role of the press and illuminating the dynamics of each country and of liberal democracies overall.