Experts and Loyalists Are the Candidates That Get onto the Electoral Lists

A PAPER BY VINCENZO GALASSO AND TOMMASO NANNICINI EXPLAINS HOW POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE SELECTED

Electoral competition within parties is good for political selection. This is one of the results of So Closed: Political Selection in Proportional Systems authored by Vincenzo Galasso and Tommaso Nannicini. The paper analyzes the closed list proportional system that was used in Italy in the 2013 national election. In this system, a candidate cannot rely on preferences. His chances of being elected depend on his position on top of the electoral list. So, which type of politician is selected to appear on the top of the lists? To provide an answer, the authors used some independent pre-electoral polls informing the parties of the number of seats they would probably have won in each district. They ranked positions in each district for each party as safe, uncertain and unsafe. “We divided candidates into two groups: experts and loyalists”, Galasso says. “A loyal candidate is a former member of the Italian parliament with a large share of votes following the party’s line; a professional politician; is born in a city that does not belong to the electoral district”. The latter measure pinpoints the so called “parachute candidates”. The empirical findings show that male loyal candidates are overrepresented in safe positions. “The closed list proportional system provide little political selection”.

Arianna Landi, a MSc in Economic and Social Sciences student who graduated with Galasso, has used a similar methodology in her thesis in order to study the effects on political selection of the Parlamentarie, the online primary of the Five Star Movement. “There are more women than men in safe seats”, Galasso says. “Landi also investigated the characteristics of MPs who have left or were expelled by the Movement. Those who leave the Movement are the MPs with the highest income”.

Read more about this topic:
Francesco Giavazzi. Elections: How and Why a Direction Is To Be Taken
Marco Percoco. How tv news reporting affects voter decisions
Massimo Morelli. How voter turnout varies, and why
Tommaso Nannicini. How the choice of candidates changes under different electoral systems
Francesco Passarelli. The psychology of voting and protesting
Guido Tabellini. why extremist parties do not win runoff elections
 

by Claudio Todesco