Replication Data for Opportunities to Govern: How to Increase the Supply of Moderate and Qualified Candidates (doi:10.7910/DVN/BQAHGZ)

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Document Description

Citation

Title:

Replication Data for Opportunities to Govern: How to Increase the Supply of Moderate and Qualified Candidates

Identification Number:

doi:10.7910/DVN/BQAHGZ

Distributor:

Harvard Dataverse

Date of Distribution:

2025-11-30

Version:

1

Bibliographic Citation:

Offer-Westort, Molly; Eggers, Andrew; Fowler, Anthony; Howell, William, 2025, "Replication Data for Opportunities to Govern: How to Increase the Supply of Moderate and Qualified Candidates", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BQAHGZ, Harvard Dataverse, V1

Study Description

Citation

Title:

Replication Data for Opportunities to Govern: How to Increase the Supply of Moderate and Qualified Candidates

Identification Number:

doi:10.7910/DVN/BQAHGZ

Authoring Entity:

Offer-Westort, Molly (University of Chicago)

Eggers, Andrew (University of Chicago)

Fowler, Anthony (University of Chicago)

Howell, William (University of Chicago)

Producer:

Enter your name here: LastName, FirstName

Distributor:

Harvard Dataverse

Access Authority:

Offer-Westort, Molly

Depositor:

Offer-Westort, Molly

Date of Deposit:

2025-09-06

Holdings Information:

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BQAHGZ

Study Scope

Keywords:

Social Sciences

Abstract:

The state of American politics would be generally improved, many argue, if more moderate and more qualified people served in government. In this paper, we investigate what draws such individuals to run for elected office, focusing on a dimension of politics that has received scant attention within the candidate-entry literature—namely, the ability of candidates, once elected, to exercise meaningful influence and change public policy. In a ratings-based conjoint survey experiment, we find that the opportunity to wield greater authority increases moderates’ interest in seeking public office, whereas extremists appear indifferent; and that more qualified people express more interest in running for office when greater authority is vested in an office, the threshold needed to pass legislation is lower, and staff support is higher. These findings have broad implications for our understanding of political representation, government effectiveness, and the relationship between institutional reform and mass politics.

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Sources Statement

Data Access

Notes:

<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0">CC0 1.0</a>

Other Study Description Materials

Other Study-Related Materials

Label:

PSRM.zip

Notes:

application/zip