Plagiarism in Politics

Plagiarism by politicians offers an interesting testbed for assessing the consequences of appropriation by the general public, since elected officials must stand for reelection and their electoral performance can be compared before and after an allegation of plagiarism. A number of cases of U.S. senators, vice presidents, and presidents who are alleged to have appropriated are described, and the results suggest that political plagiarists are largely forgiven – perhaps because the public’s perception of elected officials isn’t very high to begin with. Individuals whose careers were adversely affected include a Senate candidate who was also a decorated veteran, and the hypocrisy of a military leader engaging in this practice may have been particularly damning. And while Joe Biden was forced to end his 1988 campaign for the U.S. presidency due to cribbing from another politician, he went on to become vice president and president. Similar patterns of public forgiveness appear in British politics, as in the case of Benjamin Disraeli, who went on to have a distinguished career even though he extensively borrowed for his eulogy for the Duke of Wellington.