Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2025

Publication Title

Legislative Studies Quarterly

Volume

50

Issue

4

Pages

1-36

Publisher Name

Wiley

Abstract

How do the prior experiences of lawmakers shape their performance in office? Representatives who have held prior elected office or professional backgrounds in relevant fields—specifically law, government, or politics—seem to have an advantage in winning elections. It is unclear whether those experiences help them become more effective legislators. Using a variety of data sources, we assess whether lawmakers with relevant prior experiences are more effective in advancing bills in the 50 state legislatures. We find mixed results. We find that state senators are more effective than their colleagues if they first served in the state house, but that prior local officeholders are no more effective than first-time officeholders. Among occupational groups, lawyers alone seem to make more effective lawmakers than their colleagues. The results suggest that some narrow types of experience may help lawmakers be more effective in office, but that general experience in government and politics does not predict effectiveness. The results can help political observers and voters assess candidates' claims about how their prior experience will help them contribute to governance.

Comments

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Hansen, E. and Treul, S. 2025. Primary Barriers to Working Class Representation. Legislative Studies Quarterly 50:4, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.70011. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited

Download

Share

COinS