Electoral incentives and elite racial identification: Why Brazilian politicians change their race

摘要: Abstract Scholars recognize that individuals change how they racially identify themselves over time and even from situation to situation. Politicians, however, are typically presumed have stable, innate racial identities. In this article, I contend politicians strategically their self-professed race in response electoral incentives. Using original data Brazilian elections, show more than a quarter of the political candidates competed Brazil’s 2014 2016 elections changed publicly declared one election next. My analysis indicates composition electorate rules govern competition affect patterns change. These results suggest “racially position” as members group provides greatest rewards. This strategic behavior calls into question extant theories which assume elite membership is fixed exogenous outcomes.