The rise of populist parties in the aftermath of a massive corruption scandal

Populism is on the rise in Europe and America, and understanding its origins and evolution is becoming increasingly important. In this study, I investigate the effects of the exposure of corruption scandals on populist parties in Italy, exploiting a novel dataset based on electoral data at the municipal level. I find that local corruption exposure helps the populist parties in national elections and hurts the incumbents as the scandals are revealed.