80. Integrity becomes more important when transparency increases or decreases
Whether behavior lacking integrity leads to sanctions depends in part on transparency. The more transparency there is, the more important integrity becomes, because SPs cannot hide their behavior as much and cannot afford as many mistakes. At the same time, the less transparency there is, the more important integrity becomes, because it then comes down to SPs’ intrinsic motivation to avoid mistakes. The best protection against increased transparency is for SPs to behave as if there were complete transparency.
Whether bad behavior is sanctioned depends in part on transparency. Transparency stands for the extent to which there is a view of who SPs are, what they do, and how they perform. The better the view, the better others can pass judgment on SPs’ integrity. For this reason there are all kinds of mechanisms for achieving this transparency. The aim of monitoring, control, inspection, evaluation, giving account, meetings, debates, and appraisals is there to gain an overview, after all. The greater the transparency, the less people can hide behavior lacking integrity, so the greater the importance of integrity standing the test. SPs therefore cannot afford to abuse power as much if transparency increases.
However, this is only one side of the coin. On the other side, the less transparency, the more important integrity becomes. It is precisely because it is possible to hide more that more hangs on personal integrity, the SP’s motivation to act with pure intentions. The greater the transparency, the more important integrity becomes from extrinsic motives: in order to avoid getting caught, or being called to account, criticized, or sanctioned. However, the less transparency there is, the more intrinsic motivation matters. If there is no transparency at all – the transgression or culprit would never be discovered, revealing true integrity.452 The only thing that then determines behavior is personal integrity or its absence.
Due in part to increased public transparency in many countries over recent decades, worldwide attention for integrity has increased. In search of what is newsworthy, journalists follow the actions of SPs closely. What people say to those around them can be picked up by the microphone hanging in the air and broadcast to the world. Obama did not realize he was being recorded when he joked before a meeting that he was afraid of his wife (as a reason for stopping smoking), making headlines.453 Similarly Uruguayan president José Mujica failed to realize that a microphone was on before the start of a press conference and that it was audible to the media when he told an employee that the Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was an “old witch”, resulting in a diplomatic scandal between the two countries.454
A congressman failed to notice that a camera was still running after an interview, when he threatened to throw a journalist over the balcony and break him in half if he asked about his suspected illegal campaign funding again.455 In the battle for newsworthiness, journalists can take it to extremes, sorting through trash cans at SPs’ private houses, enquiring among their private contacts, and making hidden recordings. Journalists (like all citizens) have also gained more opportunities to find information, so SPs’ behavior cannot remain hidden as easily. As a result of increasing mediatization, behavior lacking integrity cannot as easily remain restricted to personal circles, but tends to become publicly known, so SPs cannot afford to make as many mistakes.
The rise of social media in recent years further increases transparency. SPs’ behavior is easier to follow and trace, and harder to wipe away. What people do can simply be recorded with a smartphone and put on the internet, used for blackmail, or sold on. Private matters become more and more public. A mayor was discredited when unknown people placed a four-year-old video online showing that she had had sexual intercourse with her boyfriend up a tower in public abroad.456 The British royal family was also embarrassed when photos were published of Prince Harry naked at a strip poker party, taken on a smartphone by one of the attendants.457 Mexican governor Andrés Granier sentenced himself when a radio station broadcast a conversation in which he boasted to his son about his possessions at home and abroad and revealed a great many details about his wardrobe of 400 pairs of shoes, 400 pairs of trousers, 300 suits, and 1,000 shirts. In the end Granier was sentenced to jail for fraud and money laundering to a value of more than 1.9 billion M