Media Frenzy, or Mediocre Frency?

Mediocracy

Andrea Mattozzi & Antonio Merlo
NBER Working Paper, February 2007

Abstract:
In this paper, we study the initial recruitment of individuals in the
political sector. We propose an equilibrium model of political recruitment
by a party who faces competition for political talent from the lobbying
sector. We show that a political party may deliberately choose to recruit
only mediocre politicians, in spite of the fact that it could afford to
recruit better individuals who would like to become politicians. We argue
that this finding may contribute to explain the observation that in many
countries the political class is mostly composed of mediocre people.

(Nod to KL, who is en fuego)