When Democracy Refuses to Die: Evaluating a Training Program for New Politicians (joint with Ernesto Dal Bó, Frederico Finan and Pedro Pessoa)

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 developed training programs designed to select and train a new class of political leaders. However, whether this response by civil society can succeed in renewing the political class remains uninvestigated. This paper evaluates the most extensive non-profit, non-partisan training program for aspiring politicians in Brazil. Using different empirical strategies, we estimate the program's effects on aspirants deciding to run and, conditional on running, on their electoral performance during the 2020 local elections.