What is Incumbency and what are the advantages?

Question

I really need to get the answers to this question by wednesday at 5pm too.

Answer 1

The previous answer is good in its definition of incumbency. The advantages of incumbency vary, in part, with the office concerned. If, for example, the office is local or considered minor the primary advantage of incumbency lies in 'name recognition', that is, people are unlikely to vote for someone if they never knew the person was running and they have no information on them. So the one who is recognizable, in this case because they're a known official, is more likely to win where people have little information and concern, like in minor offices. In the case of a major office the 'name recognition' effect remains but there are two additional effects that can add to an incumbent's cache. The fact that they have a record counts in their favor if that record isn't bad and the situation is tenuous. For example, a state treasurer is more likely to win if there is fear about recession and it is believed that he/she can mitigate or reverse the situation. This plays on the conservative (in the non-political sense) tendency of voters to be comforted by the famous words of Bush, "at least you know where I stand" and they 'go with the evil I know rather than the evil I don't.' The final possible incumbency advantage works if the situation is improved and people want to 'reward' the incumbent and 'keep the good times rolling.' This can be seen in the famous words of Reagan, "are you better of now than you were 4 years ago?" The implication, of course, is that if the answer is yes then your decision is already made.

Answer 2

Incumbency means the quality or state of occupying the position of an officer in government or organization. The incumbent has the advantage of being elected again in case of voting if he has a good record.