Across multiple states in 2025, legislators and governors from both parties killed or watered down reforms on gift limits, conflict disclosures, and lobbyist transparency, while some legislatures curtailed ethics commissions’ powers. The trend suggests a coordinated, if decentralized, retreat from accountability mechanisms amid already eroding national ethics norms. Experts warn tactics are getting more creative, making enforcement harder.
— A bipartisan, multi‑state rollback of ethics rules reshapes how corruption is deterred and enforced, undermining public trust and the credibility of democratic institutions.
Tyler Cowen
2025.12.03
72% relevant
Both pieces document how public officials’ leverage and institutional positions convert into private advantage and erosion of accountability; the NBER finding (Wei & Zhou) supplies hard transaction‑level evidence that national legislative leadership produces measurable private financial gains, extending the state‑level ethics rollback theme to Congress.
Halina Bennet
2025.12.01
40% relevant
The article’s emphasis on tracing funds and securing restitution underscores how weak oversight and accountability at state or local levels amplify fraud risk—an instance of the broader pattern where eroded ethics and enforcement capacity let public‑fund abuse proliferate.
Harrison Kass
2025.12.01
54% relevant
The Portland example aligns with the broader pattern of institutional capture altering accountability: instead of legislatures weakening ethics, local nonprofits and caucuses retooled charter rules and staffing to entrench a political faction, producing governance breakdowns (public‑safety, homelessness) described in the piece.
Matt Goodwin
2025.12.01
75% relevant
Goodwin’s article centers on alleged ethical breaches by a senior minister and an imminent referral to the independent ethics adviser; this maps to the broader pattern in the existing idea about weakening or politicised ethics enforcement in government and how that undermines public trust and accountability.
by Gabriel Sandoval, ProPublica, with additional reporting by Nick Reynolds and Anna Wilder, The Post and Courier; Yasmeen Khan, The Maine Monitor; Lauren Dake, Oregon Public Broadcasting; Marjorie Childress, New Mexico In Depth; Louis Hansen, Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO; Mary Steurer and Jacob Orledge, North Dakota Monitor; Kate McGee, The Texas Tribune; Alyse Pfeil, The Advocate | The Times-Picayune; and Shauna Sowersby, The Seattle Times
2025.10.01
100% relevant
Examples include Virginia killing a crypto‑disclosure bill for lawmakers, New Mexico’s governor vetoing lobbyist transparency, and North Dakota lawmakers limiting their ethics commission.