A Theory of Political Ambition
Career Choices and the Role of Structural Incentives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3492736 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gordon S Black (University of Rochester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1972 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 144-159 |
| Publication date | 1972-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1959283 |
| OpenAlex | W2105009130 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 237 |
| References cited | 5 |
Office-holders periodically face the problem of choosing among a set of career alternatives, and these alternatives customarily include the choice of dropping out of political life, or seeking reelection, or of choosing to seek higher office. This paper assumes that officeholders behave according to a rational calculus in making such choices, and that the main elements involved in the choice process include the probabilities and values attached by the candidate to his alternatives, and the investments required to obtain these alternatives. Political ambition, or the desire to seek higher office, is shown to develop as a product of the investments that politicians make in their political careers, and the investments are shown to be associated with the structural characteristics of community size and electoral competitiveness. The subjects of the research are 435 city councilmen from 89 cities of the San Francisco Bay Region, and the data include information derived from interviews with the councilmen and aggregate election data collected on each city
Aggregate (composite · Economics · Face (sociological concept · Incentive · Microeconomics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Process (computing · Product (mathematics · Public economics · Set (abstract data type · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Mathematics · Policy Transfer and Learning · Social Media and Politics
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| Unique citing works | 237 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,47 |
| Citation span | 1973 - 2026 (54) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 236 |