Recent studies show incumbency advantage in candidate-centered elections can fuel political dynasties.
This paper examines Norway's party-centered system with proportional representation and closed-lists, using regression discontinuity design at the candidate level. We find an incumbency advantage persists here too — sitting parliamentarians win more votes than expected.
However, unlike findings elsewhere (US and Philippines), we uncover no evidence that this advantage helps political families establish long-lasting dynasties.
Our results highlight Norway's unique role for internal party networks in preserving power across generations. Further research on these organizational dynamics is needed.
| Political Dynasties and the Incumbency Advantage in Party-Centered Environments was authored by Jon H. Fiva and Daniel M. Smith. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2018. |
