Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Political Ambition: A Study on Emerging Candidates

Political ambition, understood as the willingness to seek elected office, is a central driver of candidate emergence and representation. While much research has focused on individual-level predictors, less is known about how external encouragement transforms latent ambition into candidacy, especially within proportional representation (PR) systems. This paper investigates the role of encouragement in Belgium’s 2019 federal and regional elections, a context marked by party-centered lists, legislated gender quotas, and zipper rules. Drawing on original survey data from 938 candidates, the analysis distinguishes between self-starters and those prompted by parties, networks, or civil society. Findings show that gender is the most powerful determinant: women are substantially more likely than men to report external encouragement, underscoring its compensatory role in overcoming gendered barriers. Party family affiliation also matters, with Christian Democrats fostering more encouragement than Liberal, Green, or Nationalist parties. By highlighting encouragement as the mechanism linking supply- and demand-side factors, this study advances understanding of political ambition as the product of individual characteristics and institutional designs.