Electoral Institutions, Party Strategies, Candidate Attributes, and the Incumbency Advantage
Contributors: Ansolabehere, Stephen; Snyder, Jr., James; Spirling, Arthur
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Description: In developed democracies, incumbents are consistently found to have an electoral advantage over their challengers. The normative implications of this phenomenon depend on its sources. Despite a large existing literature, there is little consensus on what the sources are. In this three-paper dissertation, I find that both electoral institutions and the parties behind the incumbents appear to have a larger role than the literature has given them credit for, and that in the U.S. context, between 30 and 40 percent of the incumbents' advantage is driven by their "scaring off" serious opposition.
Notes: Keywords: elections, electoral institutions, incumbency advantage, political parties, quality challengers.

Thesis Ph.D. Harvard University 2014