DP6163 Mediocracy

Author(s): Andrea Mattozzi , Antonio Merlo

Publication Date: March 2007

Keyword(s): parties , political recruitment , politicians

JEL(s): D72 , J44 , J45

Programme Areas: Public Policy

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6163.asp.asp

In this paper, we study the initial recruitment of individuals in the political sector. We propose an equilibrium model of political recruitment by a party who faces competition for political talent from the lobbying sector. We show that a political party may deliberately choose to recruit only mediocre politicians, in spite of the fact that it could afford to recruit better individuals who would like to become politicians. We argue that this finding may contribute to explain the observation that in many countries the political class is mostly composed of mediocre people.