William Bernhard
Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Tracy Sulkin
Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
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Political Ambition and Legislative Entrepreneurship
Governance in our increasingly complex society requires innovative public policy solutions. The pace of social, economic, and technical change challenges our elected representatives to anticipate new problems and move quickly to develop policies to address them. Members of Congress, however, face constraints on their time, particularly the need to secure re-election. What, then, leads legislators to invest their limited resources on developing creative and novel policies? That is, what causes legislators to act as policy entrepreneurs?
We argue that the sources of inventive and successful public policy lie in the career incentives of legislators. We contend that their willingness to invest resources in policy specialization and innovation reflects their political ambitions and opportunities for advancement. By understanding how political career paths affect the propensity to engage in policy entrepreneurship, we will be able to identify the institutions that promote innovative and creative policy solutions.
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