90. Integrity is put to the test during selection processes and elections
Integrity reveals its power during SP selection processes and elections. This shows in (1) attempts by opposition to discredit the integrity of candidates, (2) the way in which integrity is included in the job description, (3) the way in which candidates are questioned and tested on their integrity, and (4) how candidates advocate integrity. Risks SPs run with respect to their integrity are (1) discrediting themselves when attempting to discredit others, (2) making commitments that lack integrity in themselves, and (3) making commitments they cannot keep.
Just as integrity does not stop after leaving office, it does not begin with being appointed as an SP. Integrity already plays a role in selection processes and elections. After all, if integrity is important for practicing as an SP, then it is also important to make sure that candidates for SP positions have the level of integrity required. Here, too, integrity reveals its power.
The fact that integrity is important is clear from all attempts opponents and competitors make to discredit the integrity of fellow candidates. Labeling other candidates as turncoats, liars, slippery, unreliable, and underhand, for example, are attempts to damage them because these are seen as negative qualities by those selecting.
The fact that candidates are questioned as to their integrity also shows the importance of integrity.This questioning does not only occur during selection interviews but also during talks, campaigns, media interviews, and may be carried out by intelligence services. Candidate SPs can be asked directly about their ideals, vision, and principles, and may be presented with dilemmas and thorny issues to determine whether they respond with integrity, extracting statements that conflict (lack integrity) with their own previous statements or prevailing policy. Sometimes traps are even set, such as misleading questions or hidden cameras, to determine whether candidates hold firm and how authentic they are. No wonder SPs feel they have been grilled, set on the rack, and turned inside out in the run-up to taking office.
The idea that integrity is important is also indicated by the way in which candidate SPs present themselves. Bill Clinton explained his choice of Al Gore as running mate saying that he was “a leader of great…integrity”.517 In his campaign George H.W. Bush called on people to vote for the candidate with “the integrity…to get the job done.”518
Selection processes and elections are also a test of integrity in the sense of revealing how candidates deal with pressure and temptation. Elections can be exhausting, putting people under great pressure. In many elections it is all or nothing, now or never, a battle in which you win or lose. An illustrative example of this is the name of the headquarters of Bill Clinton’s presidential election campaign, which was the “War Room”. In election times people are closely followed, and cannot afford to make mistakes. Joe Biden had to withdraw his candidacy for the presidency after it emerged that he had given a speech full of personal anecdotes that originated from the speech of a British politician, and that he had failed a course in his law degree due to plagiarism. 519 Similarly an alderman was forced to resign when it emerged that he had used municipal address files for his new election campaign.
Vote rigging may be the greatest sin a politician can commit during elections, as it undermines the existence of free elections. Paraguay has a long tradition of vote rigging; to give a recent example, last year local media showed a video recording of a senator attempting to buy votes for his party at €20 a vote.520 An Italian municipal council member was also recently arrested when it emerged that he had bought 4,000 votes to be sure of winning the local elections.521
There are other integrity risks besides vote rigging lying in wait during selection processes and elections.
One of the integrity risks is that candidates attempt to discredit others but end up discrediting themselves. Blackening the reputations of others, making things personal, making false accusations, and injuring opponents do not show integrity. For example, German candidate Oskar Lafontaine compared his opponent Gerhard Schröder with Chancellor Heinrich Brüning (who prepared the way for Adolf Hitler). Schröder dismissed this criticism saying that Lafontaine had never fully recovered from an attempt on his life.522
Another risk to integrity is promising others favors that lack integrity in return for support, for instance offering jobs, favorable treatment, or assignments if the SP achieves the desired position. Such promises damage the purity of decisions if SPs fulfill them once in office. Funding from private individuals or companies for election campaigns is a threat to integrity in this respect. It at least creates the appearance that favorable treatment will be given in return, with the possibility, as Obama noted, of becoming a prisoner of those financing the campaign.523
In attempting to gain support SPs also run the risk of making promises they cannot fulfill. During selection processes and