The good, the bad and the winner: Good politicians and electoral success in Latin America

© 2014 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. All rights reserved. In this paper I analyze what personal traits define a good politician from the perspective of the Latin-American legislators. In addition to verifying whether these qualities are the same elected by citizens, in this work I compare them with the qualities that serve to win elections. Furthermore, different analyses remark the effect that political knowledge has on these preferences, making charisma more attractive among citizens with low levels of political sophistication. However, little is known about the impact of this variable for politicians. This article measures a)whether education and political knowledge also alter the perception of the deputies on what characteristics are more valued b) which of these characteristics serve better to gain elections, as well as c) the influence of constituents’ political sophistication.