MOVING OFF STAGE: MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO GIVE UP THE RACE FOR OFFICE (1990- 2006)

Abstract

Tired or excluded? This text maps the profile of the politicians who most frequently tend to give upthe race for office. It is based on research covering legislative elections between 1990 and 2006,observing the profile of representatives and senators who refused to be considered the “naturalcandidates” and opted not to run for re-election nor go for higher-level offices. Politicians who ranfor offices that are considered to be of lesser prestige than the ones originally occupied are alsoincluded in our analysis, in order to look at unsuccessful trajectories and compare them with casesin which a mandate has been given up completely. This group of members of parliament could, ata first glance, seem to constitute the exception to the well-known formula that politicians becomeincreasingly ambitious. In general terms, we note that the politicians who step back from electoralstruggle – whether permanently or maintaining some strategies to continue – belong to groups that1) have in some way exhausted their participation and influence in political competition (for example,they may have been exposed through scandal, gotten old or belong to decadent social groups) or 2)have not yet managed to enter the political field with the same ease as their peers (as in the case ofwomen, those who debut in a first mandate, substitutes or members of parliament who representminority factions)