Claudio Ferraz, British Columbia

Paper: “When Democracy Refuses to Die: Evaluating a Training Program for New Politicians”

Abstract: Brazil has experienced democratic backsliding in recent years, often blamed on rising distrust of a political class marred by corruption scandals. This phenomenon is also present in several other nations in the developing and developed world. In response, several non-profit organizations have emerged with training programs designed to select and train a new class of political leaders. But whether this response by civil society can succeed in renewing the political class remains uninvestigated. This paper evaluates the largest non-profit, non-partisan training program for aspiring politicians in Brazil. Using an IV approach and a judge-specific regression discontinuity design, we estimate the effects of the program on aspirants deciding to run, the type of people that run, and, conditional on running, their electoral performance during the 2020 local elections.