2024/04/19 by Jens Olav Dahlgaard, Rasmus T. Pedersen · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Gender Politics and Representation #Social Policy and Reform Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/psrm.2024.12
openalex publication_date 2024/04/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract Can democracies attract and elect politicians who are both high-ability and from diverse backgrounds? Using data covering the entire Danish population, including every candidate for local and national elections in 1990–2015, we explore the selection of political candidates. We show that Danish candidates and elected politicians have higher ability than the voters they represent, that selection on ability reflects individual skills rather than social background, that politicians are selected from economically diverse backgrounds, and that there is no substantial trade-off between ability and representation. Furthermore, we utilize a major structural reform, which significantly reduced the number of municipalities in Denmark, to show that increased political competition did not affect politicians’ ability, economic background, or the trade-off between the two.