Person:
Desai, Zuheir

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Zuheir
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Desai
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IE University
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IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs
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International Relations
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    Can Descriptive Representation Help the Right Win Votes from the Poor? Evidence from Brazil
    (John Wiley and Sons Inc, 2023) Frey, Anderson; Desai, Zuheir; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
    The electoral success of the Right in poor nations is typically attributed to nonpolicy appeals such as clientelism. Candidate profiles are usually ignored because if voters value class-based descriptive representation,it should be the Left that uses it. In this article,we develop and test a novel theory of policy choice and candidate selection that defies this conventional wisdom: it is the Right that capitalizes on descriptive representation in high-poverty areas. The Right is only competitive in poor regions when it matches the Left's pro-poor policies. To credibly shift its position,it nominates candidates who are descriptively closer to the poor. Using a regression discontinuity design in Brazilian municipal elections,we show that Right-wing mayors spend less on the poor than Left-wing mayors only in low-poverty municipalities. In high-poverty municipalities,not only does the Right match the Left's policies,it also does so while nominating less educated candidates. © 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Political Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Midwest Political Science Association.