Politicians in developing countries are typically considered to be rent-seeking, self-serving, and corrupt. The "negative selection hypothesis" suggests that it is the inherently dishonest that seek to enter office, in the expectation of earning political rent. Alternatively, the "positive selection hypothesis" posits that those who enter politics are more idealistic than ordinary citizens and wish to make a difference. But with greater exposure to politics, they become more cynical and self-serving. We use survey and experimental data from politicians and regular citizens from rural West Bengal to study the attributes, attitudes, and behaviors of both newly elected and more experienced local-level politicians and how they compare to the general population. We find that compared to regular citizens, neophyte politicians are more honest, trusting, fair-minded and express greater faith in political institutions and processes. Experienced politicians, on the other hand, are more cynical and less honest than incoming ones. This provides evidence in favor of the positive selection hypothesis, but also suggests that the political environment either makes politicians more cynical over time or makes the more idealistic ones select out of politics when they get the chance.

This webinar is part of a series of Zoom events that explores issues in growth and development in India. The series' academic committee consist of Takashi Kurosaki (Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study), Pushkar Maitra (Monash University and Sujata Visaria (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology).