Ambitious Politicians: The Implications of Career Ambition in Representative Democracy

"[T]hose people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it." This is how writer Douglas Adams neatly expressed the common view of political ambition. And yet, it’s hard to imagine any politician getting far without it. Ambitious Politicians brings a welcome study and insight to this conundrum.

Focusing first on the party-centered politics of European democracies, where career ambitions are necessarily different than those in the United States, Patrik Öhberg lo...