Politicians with day jobs: how professionalisation of public office shapes citizens’ attitudes

Abstract

Elected public officials often spend their time not only on their mandate but also other remunerated activities. This can affect citizens’ trust in politicians. Whether and to what extent this happens depends on the public office. This study examines how characteristics of the elected public office shape citizens’ attitudes towards politicians with non-political occupations. It uses data from a pre-registered survey experiment conducted in the context of Austrian local government (N = 1,937). The experiment measures citizens’ reactions to day jobs as a function of differences between and within public offices. The results reveal that higher professionalisation of public offices corresponds to lower trust in politicians with day jobs. In contrast, there is no evidence that politicians with more decision-making power are less trusted by voters for having a day job. Overall, these findings highlight that social norms for elected officials can differ based on public office characteristics.