Why Do Parties Push Less Competent Lawmakers? Signaling Explains It

Voters care about representatives' competence. Political parties face an incentive to signal this valence trait to win elections.

Our model shows how electoral pressures combined with policy motivations lead parties to strategically assign legislators to leadership positions based on their views, not necessarily their ability. Party leaders promote less competent incumbents than they might if voters didn't interpret promotion decisions as signals of quality.

Using Chilean senator careers from 1998-2013 and original data analysis, we demonstrate that only when an incumbent holds extreme party positions does promotion serve as an effective signal to voters about their competence. This finding suggests nuanced implications for legislative organization.