TY  - JOUR
AB  - Government employees often have policy beliefs that do not reflect those of the public. Civil servants are frequently more supportive of redistribution, which critics attribute to a state that socializes employees to be self-interested. But left-leaning citizens may instead self-select into public jobs. We test these two explanations using the case of Brazilian teachers. Leveraging selection rules where a meritocratic exam determines employment, we use a regression discontinuity design to compare those who become bureaucrats with those who tried but were unsuccessful. We find that teachers are significantly more left-leaning than the average citizen, but public employment has no further effect on political attitudes, and even makes teachers more conservative on some indicators. Comparing exam-takers, regardless of the outcome, to the Brazilian population, we find that right-leaning citizens simply do not apply. While bureaucrats' political attitudes are unrepresentative of the population, claims attributing their attitudes to state employment overlook self-selection.
AU  - Coyoli, Julia
AU  - Davies, Emmerich
AU  - Finger, Leslie K.
AU  - Phillips, Jonathan
PY  - 2026
ST  - Why Are Bureaucrats More Left-Wing?
TI  - Why Are Bureaucrats More Left-Wing?
UR  - http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1511
ER  -