In their pursuit of being elected, politicians might not provide their constituents with independent viewpoints, but …, "candor", can be sustained as equilibria. This means that the public's trust or distrust in politicians may be self …-fulfilling prophecies. Importantly, the more informed politicians are about public opinion, the more likely it is that populist behavior can …

In this paper we analyze the 2019 EP elections from the voters' perspective. It is based on a novel post … following questions: How important were the lead candidates in the election campaign? Which issues were most important for …

voters' capacity to identify and empower well-suited politicians. In our model, candidates are heterogeneous in two … concentration of power in the hands of the election winner is optimal if and only if the conflict of interest is small. …

candidates by observing their pre-election behavior. Egoistic types may strategically imitate benevolent types in the pre-election … the public sector is effective. We analyze the role of institutions like investigative media and re-election and show that …

voters' capacity to identify and empower competent politicians. In our model, candidates are privately informed about their … motivation. In particular, full concentration of power is desirable if and only if politicians are mostly welfare-oriented. The …