Vetting Scandals End Competence Brands

When a political leader’s core pitch is technocratic competence, a high‑profile failures of vetting or process can rapidly dismantle that brand and cascade into electoral vulnerability. Such scandals don't just hurt reputations; they reframe policy failures (economy, crime, migration) as products of illegitimacy rather than disagreement. — If true, this explains why seemingly competent parties suffer rapid public collapse after procedural scandals and why vetting and administrative probity become political fault lines.