Why parties can benefit from promoting occupational diversity in legislatures: Experimental evidence from three countries

The forthcoming article “Why parties can benefit from promoting occupational diversity in legislatures: Experimental evidence from three countries” by Mia Costa and Miguel M. Pereira is summarized by the author(s) below.

Can legislators’ occupational experience outside politics make them more persuasive and effective in shaping policy? Parties frequently face the challenge of defending unpopular policies, which are often necessary to address complex problems but risk alienating voters and colleagues. Our forthcoming article examines how legislators’ occupational backgrounds shape their ability to persuade voters and peers. We conducted survey experiments in Germany, the United States, and Sweden to explore this question and found that politicians with relevant professional experience are seen as more credible and effective in advancing policies within their areas of expertise. The article highlights an important but underappreciated mechanism of descriptive representation, showing how occupational diversity can influence policy outcomes.

Across three political contexts, we examined two policy proposals that, while supported by expert reasoning, lack broad public approval. First, in Germany, we tested how voters responded to a policy to eliminate grade retention in schools. Legislators with experience in education were perceived as significantly more knowledgeable about the issue, and this credibility converted into higher public support for the otherwise unpopular proposal. These effects hold regardless of whether the legislator was a professor or a teacher, emphasizing the importance of relevant occupational experience over the prestige of the profession.

Similarly, in the United States, legislators with a medical degree were seen as better informed and were more effective at building support for restricting telehealth services. Importantly, we found that occupational background effects were not diminished when other legislators provided the same, detailed arguments.

We extended the third study to elected officials. In Sweden, we found that local politicians were more likely to co-sign the same telehealth reform when proposed by peers with relevant professional experience. This result suggests that elected officials can leverage their occupational background not only to persuade voters but also to build policy coalitions in the legislature.

About the Author(s): Mia Costa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College and Miguel M. Pereira is an Assistant Professor in European Politics at the London School of Economics. Their research “Why parties can benefit from promoting occupational diversity in legislatures: Experimental evidence from three countries” is now available in Early View and will appear in a forthcoming issue of the American Journal of Political Science.