What is it about?
This paper is about understanding why legislators strive for certain offices versus others. How does party competition and a legislator's political experience and loyalty make them want to continue a political career on the regional and national level versus reelection? The findings show that dynamics of party competition on a district and national level as well as a legislator's previous experience and loyalty affect their office goals.
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Why is it important?
Analyzing legislator's ambition is important for understanding representation in contemporary democracies. The findings in this paper show that legislators' previous career path and party loyalty affects the offices they seek. National and regional party competition also affects goals; as party competition on each level increases, the probability of seeking an office in that realm decreases - this finding holds for regional executive office and the presidency.
Perspectives
In order to understand parties and how representation works, it is necessary to look inside the parties at the goals and behavior of individual representatives. Analyzing legislators' preferences can help understand their behavior and even political outcomes. This is a first approach to ambition in multiparty systems in Latin America by drawing on cross-national survey data and focusing on which offices legislators seek and why legislators seek certain offices rather than others.
Theresa Kernecker
Universitat Wien
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Political Ambition in 14 Presidential Democracies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, April 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/lsq.12131.
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