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The law of survival of the political class:an analysis of the Italian Parliament (1946-2010)

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  • Silvia Fedeli
  • Francesco Forte

Abstract

Drawing on Alchian's and Schumpeter's theories about the market selection of entrepreneurs and on theories of the political class, we focus on the features characterizing the Italian post-war democratic Parliament, from 1946 to 2010. We analyse the survival of the members of the Italian Parliament, taking into account all available information concerning their individual characteristics and political affiliation. We apply the stratified Cox model, taking into consideration the order of re-election of the 15,357 repeated observations (representing 7,127 members of the Italian Parliament since 1946), who are followed as if they were "patients" in order to study their parliamentary survival.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Fedeli & Francesco Forte, 2011. "The law of survival of the political class:an analysis of the Italian Parliament (1946-2010)," Working Papers in Public Economics 146, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    • Handle: RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp146
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political enterprise; political class; survival analysis; Italian Parliament.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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