Politicians and their constituents Flashcards
What did Dal Bo Ernesto et al (2017) find out about the representation of politicians
Looked into Swedish government officials, and found politicians were a part of the elite, with a higher income and education, found that they also had a higher leadership score and scored higher on cognitive tests (positive representation)
How representative are politicians in Sub-Saharan Africa
The education of politicians relative to citizens is a major variation, as it was found that most politicians where university educated, sometimes a constitutional requirement
Besley et al (2017) Sweden case study
Looked into the Sweden Democratic Zipper Quota – which the liberal democrats required parties to make a list of candidates with an equal number of women.
Found that quality of females competence stayed the same, but rather this quota had been done in order to increase the competence of men – suggests a negative effect of representation biases, as it limits the pool of qualified and more competent politicians
How did Gordon Black (1972) explain why people ran for office
Some citizens are more likely to run based on their expected benefits
Utility function
Reward for entering= benefit from acheiving office x probability of winning - cost
In countries where there is no limit to cost of political campaigns, there is a huge cost to run for office e.g. Nigeria spend 30x their income to get into office. Must repary their debts through contracts which increases corruption
Suggests that if we change the cost of entry, we could get more people trying to run for office and therefore more representation
Case stuides- campaign speding limits Columbia
Gulzar et al 2022
Colombia Mayoral elections- found mayors who had a higher cut-off limit are provided with a lot more money by donors, this led to mayors who have won an election gave out more contracts
Found that looser campaign limits lead to higher corruption, poor policy, and favouritism when giving out contracts
Case studies- campaign spending limits UK
Fouiranies (2021)
UK campaign limits are very restrictive, found that spending limits where higher for conservative than labour, these campaign spending limits, increase incumbency advantage as incumbents have easier time to raise revenue, as well as being an easier choice for donors
Understanding the benefits of political entry: Career incentives in the UK
Eggers & Hainmeuller
The effect of winning an election on income across different candidates
For labour politicians it did not have an significant impact on income, however conservative candidates who wins office has 2x the income relative to one who loses office
Thus for conservative candidates their is an economic motivation for running for office
Understanding the benefits of political entry: Career incentives in the Pakistan
READING
Gulzar et al 2021
Looked at NGOs in a district in Pakistan during village elections and why people ran for this election and whether or not they could change their mind based on information they give them either about social and personal benefits
In Pakistan 85% more likley to run for office for societal benefits than personal
And those who were motivated by social benefits and were elected, led to them doing more for their citizens in office contradicting socialisation effect
Define Responsiveness
adopting “policies that are signalled as preferred by citizens” (Manin et al. 1999)
When are politicians most responsive
i) citizens are electorally pivotal
ii) needs are high,
iii) knowledge cost is low
What did Jablonski and Seim 2022) study and find out. READING
Studied politicians in Malawi when asking for help to allocate spending benefits for a school, and how politicians make these decisions
Found that when given a quiz about schools in their constituents, politicians are able to identify the fundamental basics of school, but were unable to provide specific information about their constituents which shows knowledge costs are high
Discovered that politicians cared about needs, particularly near to them
And average, when politicians were told about how needy schools are, it is reflective in their decisions
Suggests politicians are more knowledgeable and more responsive to communities with close social and geographic ties
