Political dynasties in democracies can rely on shared political capital, such as local connections or the personal vote. This paper provides causal evidence of an institutional reform that destroyed political capital, breaking family legacies. We exploit Britain’s 1885 Redistribution of Seats Act, mandating the abolition of constituencies below a population threshold. We find little evidence that redistricting affected incumbents’ immediate electoral success. Yet those whose seats were abolished were less likely to have relatives entering the House of Commons afterwards. The differences are not driven by fewer immediate successions in the next election, but by having fewer new relatives over the next few decades. Our paper highlights an understudied long-term consequence of redistricting: shifting the distribution of power across generations.
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10 October 2024
Research Article|
October 10 2024
Unbreakable Legacies? Redistricting, Political Capital and Political Dynasties
Brenda Van Coppenolle
Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po
, 1 place Saint-Thomas d’Aquin, 75007 Paris, France
Department of Government, University of Essex
, United Kingdom
* This research was supported by the ERC-2022-STG POLLOT project 101077623. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ERCEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The author thanks Carlos Velasco Rivera for contributing to earlier drafts of this paper, who gratefully acknowledged early support for this project through the ANR Labex IAST. In addition, the author thanks discussants and audiences at IAST, University of Essex, APSA 2019, Durham University, EPSA 2020, SIOE 2023, and King’s College London 2023 for comments and feedback. The author is particularly grateful to Gidon Cohen and Nick Vyvian at Durham University for sharing data.
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* This research was supported by the ERC-2022-STG POLLOT project 101077623. Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ERCEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The author thanks Carlos Velasco Rivera for contributing to earlier drafts of this paper, who gratefully acknowledged early support for this project through the ANR Labex IAST. In addition, the author thanks discussants and audiences at IAST, University of Essex, APSA 2019, Durham University, EPSA 2020, SIOE 2023, and King’s College London 2023 for comments and feedback. The author is particularly grateful to Gidon Cohen and Nick Vyvian at Durham University for sharing data.
Revision Received:
April 12 2024
Received:
April 27 2024
Accepted:
June 09 2024
Online ISSN: 2693-9304
Print ISSN: 2693-9290
© 2024 B. Van Coppenolle
2024
B. Van Coppenolle
Licensed re-use rights only
Journal of Historical Political Economy (2024) 4 (3): 333–359.
Article history
Revision Received:
April 12 2024
Received:
April 27 2024
Accepted:
June 09 2024
Citation
Van Coppenolle B (2024), "Unbreakable Legacies? Redistricting, Political Capital and Political Dynasties". Journal of Historical Political Economy, Vol. 4 No. 3 pp. 333–359, doi: https://doi.org/10.1561/115.00000077
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