Does Politicians’ Quality matter? On the effects of Legislative Effectiveness and Voter orientation

Politicians – and in particular career politicians - have a reputation for being distant from voters and not acting in their interests, meaning that voters mistrust them Mistrust in politicians is problematic since politicians, and in particular parliamentarians, play a crucial role in legitimising representative democracy. However, we do not know whether rather unchangeable traits of politicians (such as age, career path and profession) or changeable factors such as the behavior of politicians ( their legislative effectiveness and their voter orientation) impact their evaluations. Based on a survey experiments conducted in Switzerland, Germany, and the UK, we will study how voters perceive career politicians, to which extent this depends on unchangeable traits (particularly career path, but also age and profession) and changeable factors such as performance in parliament and the constituency.