Kappe, R;
Schuster, C;
(2022)
Agents of past principals: The lasting effects of incumbents on the political ideology of bureaucrats.
European Journal of Political Research
, 61
(3)
pp. 807-828.
10.1111/1475-6765.12473.
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Abstract
Understanding representation is central to politics. Numerous studies assess under which conditions politicians share citizens’ ideological preferences. However, under which conditions bureaucrats share citizens’ ideological preferences has not been systematically studied. Yet, bureaucratic preferences shape policy outcomes. Our paper thus studies why bureaucrats are more right or left-wing than citizens in some countries and points of time, yet not others. We theorize that political ideologies of past incumbents shape this variation. Incumbents can select ideologically aligned bureaucrats and socialize bureaucrats into ideological preferences; moreover, prospective bureaucrats may self-select into ideologically aligned governments. As bureaucratic tenure exceeds political tenure, this politicization has lasting effects. Survey data from 87 countries supports this argument: bureaucrats are more left-leaning than citizens in countries with longer prior rule by economically left-wing governments, and more right-wing in countries with more authoritarian pasts. This suggests that incumbents continue to shape the ideological preferences of bureaucrats after leaving office.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Agents of past principals: The lasting effects of incumbents on the political ideology of bureaucrats |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1475-6765.12473 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12473 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | bureaucracy, ideological congruence, representation, political control |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10128604 |
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