Browsing by Author "Lamberg, Laura"

This thesis investigates mid-term level-hopping by legislative politicians. Mid-term level-hopping is defined by the author as premature exit from one political office in exchange for a new mandate on another territorial level of politics. These career moves are facilitated by the existence of multiple levels of politics with asynchronous electoral cycles. All such movements between the European Parliament (EP) and national parliaments of the EU-15 in 1994–2016 have been identified in this thesis, with the aim of mapping the state of mid-term level-hopping in the multi-level EU context. Empirical examination was informed by a conceptual framework of individual ambition and institutional opportunity structure, adapted and expanded from previous research on legislatures, legislators, and multi-level political careers. Empirical analysis set out to answer questions on five dimensions of mid-term level-hopping: prevalence, direction, cross-country difference, temporal developments, and causal factors. The first four of these questions were studied with simple statistical methods. Causal factors were investigated with the aid of multinomial linear regression informed by theory. A dataset of the entire population of mid-term level-hopping was collected. Population data was chosen due to the nature of the research questions and aim of this study. Mid-term level-hopping was found to vary significantly in prevalence, direction, and temporal developments by member state. Overall, 266 cases were found. In the entire EU-15, mid-term level-hopping was biased in the direction of the EP (63.2% of all hops). However, a greater share of mandates were both left and taken up as a result of mid-term level-hopping in the EP compared to national parliaments. The prevalence and direction of level-hopping was stable over time, again with cross-country differences. Finally, regression analysis indicated availability, accessibility, and attractiveness of offices was useful for explaining prevalence and direction of mid-term level-hopping, availability most importantly. Interestingly, higher salaries did not increase movements in the presumed direction. In conclusion, a focus on mid-term level-hopping was judged to be a valuable addition to research on political careers. The results indicate that mid-term level-hopping is a stable part of legislative politics and here to stay. Importantly, considerations of mid-term level-hopping facilitate the examination of causally antecedent motivations with temporally succeeding career moves and the interplay of political professionalism with moral democratic responsibility. It is thus hoped by the author, that mid-term level-hopping approaches will also be utilised in other regions, levels, and questions in future studies.