Incumbency Bias

Why Political Office is a Blessing and a Curse in Latin America

Häftad, Engelska, 2025

Av Luis Schiumerini, Indiana) Schiumerini, Luis (University of Notre Dame

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The conventional wisdom in political science is that incumbency provides politicians with a massive electoral advantage. This assumption has been challenged by the recent anti-incumbent cycle. When is incumbency a blessing for politicians and when is it a curse? Incumbency Bias offers a unified theory that argues that democratic institutions will make incumbency a blessing or curse by shaping the alignment between citizens' expectations of incumbent performance and incumbents' capacity to deliver. This argument is tested through a comparative investigation of incumbency bias in Brazil, Argentina and Chile that draws on extensive fieldwork and an impressive array of experimental and observational evidence. Incumbency Bias demonstrates that rather than clientelistic or corrupt elites compromising accountability, democracy can generate an uneven playing field if citizens demand good governance but have limited information. While focused on Latin America, this book carries broader lessons for understanding the electoral returns to office around the world.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-06-05
Mått151 x 228 x 15 mm
Vikt410 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieCambridge Studies in Comparative Politics
Antal sidor276
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009636544

Tillhör följande kategorier

1. The puzzle of incumbency bias; 2. Bounded accountability: a theory of incumbency bias; 3. Too big to succeed: incumbency disadvantage in Brazilian municipalities; 4. Commodity shocks and incumbency disadvantage in rural Brazil; 5. When capacity meets authority: the incumbency advantage of southern cone governors; 6. With narrow scope comes great advantage: incumbency bias in Chile; 7. Microfoundations of incumbency bias: evidence from survey experiments; 8. incumbency bias and democracy; References; Appendices.

'Incumbency was once believed to yield an overwhelming advantage in Latin America. But today, at least in parts of Latin America, incumbents are being thrown out like never before. In this pathbreaking study, Luis Schiumerini offers a compelling new framework to understand why incumbents succeed or fail. Drawing on impressive research, Incumbency Bias shows why incumbency continues to benefit politicians in some contexts but undermines them in others. This is, by far, the best book I have read on the comparative politics of incumbency. A must-read for anyone who studies-or cares about-electoral politics in Latin America.' Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies, Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University