Abstract
Political careers have changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Still, political science research has yet to fully quantify this development. Building on existing literature on career politicians, this study uses a handful of indicators introduced by King (Br J Polit Sci 11(3):249–285, 1981), a new variable (pre-parliamentary occupations), and an original data set compiled by the author. The paper’s contribution to the literature is threefold. Firstly, using the variables introduced by King, it observes that a plateau in the number of career politicians has been reached. Secondly, when looking at the occupational background of politicians, the data show a further rise in career politicians. Thirdly, this development is especially prevalent among cabinet ministers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A thorough discussion of the appropriateness of the term ‘career politician’ goes beyond the scope of this study. It can be found in King 1981.
This addition to the profile of career politicians is crucial to the analysis of the rise of career politicians and if confirmed has several far-reaching consequences in terms of their relationship with the public. Or to use Weberian terms: for many politicians living for politics requires them to live off politics.
Michael Dugher for example, a career politician by all accounts, was denied the opportunity to stand for the relatively safe Labour seat of Doncaster North in 2005 when Ed Miliband, another career politician trumped him in getting the Labour nomination. Due to the increased competition—in this case by Miliband—Dugher had to wait until 2010 for his chance.
A recent phenomenon mostly affecting the Labour party.
A Liberal Democrat career politician might have to wait for decades before having a realistic chance at winning a seat.
For instance, voters might be unwilling to vote for young candidates or selection committees might believe that young candidates are unlikely to win and will thus not adopt them as candidates.
Bryon Criddle (2010) finds that of the new Labour MPs in 2010, about 40% had previous political experience as a minister’s aide.
Cameron, Miliband and Clegg were MPs for 4, 5 and 2 years respectively before becoming party leader. The average post-war parliamentary experience of a party leader has been 22 (Conservatives), 19 (Labour) and 16 (Liberal Democrats) (Cowley 2012).
Most of their competition for the leadership posts were also less experienced than the previous average (Cowley 2012).
As of the 1980s, it can safely be assumed that hereditary seats are a thing of the past and thus no longer reflect young entries.
For one to three MPs per election it was impossible to determine their exact age. Those cases have been excluded.
The individuals involved served in cabinet at any point during the period indicated in the column headings. Members of the House of Lords who never sat in the House of Commons have been excluded. Members of the House of Lords who once sat in the House of Commons have been included.
Moreover, the election of 2010 is unique in a second aspect, as the expenses scandal lead to a high number of MPs resigning or not standing for re-election. Thus seat turnover in 2010 is even higher.
Just as in King’s study, Table 4 omits one group who should be included and includes another group who should be omitted. On the one hand, it takes no account of MPs who retire between elections, thus forcing by-elections; on the other, it includes some members who have not really retired voluntarily but who have been denied renomination by their constituency party or association and then decided not to seek re-election. It is doubtful, however, whether the inclusion of the former and the exclusion of the latter would have significantly changed the results. Table 5 includes all MPs that left Parliament without standing for re-election.
Only 14 MPs stood down at the October election of 1974. The data from this election thus have to be treated with caution.
As it was with the entry age, the average retirement age has not been included as it is only available since 1983.
Business-related professions refer to occupations such as business management, consultants, accountants or financial analysts. Of course there can be considerable overlap with other categories, especially with the legal professions. Individuals were placed into the legal professions category if they have been called to the bar at one point.
The table was created by collecting data from the various editions of ‘The British general election of …’ since 1951 (the first time the data were included in the publication). The category ‘union officials’ is omitted from the table, since the percentages could not be found in the data. It is likely to be part of the miscellaneous sub-category ‘white collar’.
A detailed analysis of the rise of New Labour and its impact on class voting and representation can be found in (Heath et al. 2001).
One might argue for splitting the two up in separate categories. There is, however, considerable overlap and crossover between them, which often makes it difficult to label individuals as one and not the other. Furthermore, for the purpose of this analysis both produce occupational backgrounds heavily intertwined with Westminster and are thus ideal for career politicians.
The information for these tables was taken from Who’s Who and Who Was Who. Those occupying the four top offices in the state—Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary—have been underlined and place at the top of their columns.
Here groups (4)–(6) are combined as `white collar’.
Recent changes in leadership have altered the situation somewhat. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn both have distinct profiles from Cameron and Miliband.
References
Allen, P. 2012. Linking pre-parliamentary political experience and the career trajectories of the 1997 general election cohort. Parliamentary Affairs 68 (1): 1–23.
Allen, P., and P. Cairney. 2015. What do we mean when we talk about the `Political Class’? Political Studies Review 11: 1478–9302.
Allen, P., and D. Cutts. 2016. Exploring sex differences in attitudes towards the descriptive and substantive representation of women. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 18 (4): 912–929.
Barber, S. 2014. Arise, careerless politician: The rise of the professional party leader. Politics 34 (1): 23–31.
Bell, W., J. Hill, and C. Wright. 1961. Public leadership. San Francisco: Chandler.
Best, H., and M. Cotta. 2000. Parliamentary representatives in Europe, 1848–2000: legislative recruitment and careers in eleven European countries. Oxford: University Press.
Black, G. 1972. A theory of political ambition: Career choices and the role of structural incentives. The American Political Science Review 66 (1): 144–159.
Cairney, P. 2007. The professionalisation of mps: Refining the ‘politics-facilitating’ explanation. Parliamentary Affairs 68 (1): 1–23.
Cairney, P., M. Keating, and A. Wilson. 2016. Solving the problem of social background in the UK ‘political class’: Do parties do things differently in Westminster, devolved and European elections? British Politics 11 (2): 142–163.
Cowley, P. 2012. Arise, novice leader! the continuing rise of the career politician. Politics 32 (1): 31–38.
Cracknell, R., J. Fessey, J. Hardacre, and O. Gay. 2010. Members 1979–2010. London: House of Commons Library.
Criddle, B. 2010. More diverse yet more uniform: Mps and candidates. In The British general election of 2010, ed. D. Butler, P. Cowley, and D. Kavanagh. London: Palgrave.
Durose, C., L. Richardson, R. Combs, C. Eason, and F. Gains. 2013. Acceptable difference’: Diversity, representation and pathways to UK politics. Parliamentary Affairs 66 (2): 246–267.
Goplerud, M. 2013. The first time is (mostly) the charm: Special advisers as parliamentary candidates and members of parliament. Parliamentary Affairs 68 (2): 332–351.
Heath, A., R. Jowell, and J. Curtice. 2001. The rise of new labour: Party policies and voter choices. Oxford: University Press.
Homola, J. 2017. Are parties equally responsive to women and men? British Journal of Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123417000114
King, A. 1981. The rise of the career politician in britain—and its consequences. British Journal of Political Science 11 (3): 249–285.
King, A. 1991. The british prime ministership in the age of the career politician. West European Politics 14 (2): 25–47.
Lamprinakou, C., M. Morucci, R. Campbell, and J. van Heerde-Hudson. 2017. All change in the house? The profile of candidates and MPs in the 2015 British general election. Parliamentary Affairs 70 (2): 207–232.
Lovenduski, J., and P. Norris. 1994. Political recruitment: Gender, race and class in the British Parliament. Cambridge: University Press.
Mattozzi, A., and A. Merlo. 2008. Political careers or career politicians? Journal of Public Economics 92: 597–608.
Norris, P. 1997. Passages to power: Legislative recruitment in advanced democracie. Cambridge: University Press.
Oborne, P. 2008. The triumph of the political class. London: Pocket Books.
Paxman, J. 2007. Political animal: An anatomy. London: Penguin Books.
Ridell, P. 1993. Honest opportunism—rise of the career politician. London: H. Hamilton.
Rosenzweig, R. 1957. The politician and the career in politics. Midwest Journal of Political Science 1 (2): 163–172.
Samuels, D. 2000. Ambition and competition: Explaining legislative turnover in Brazil. Legislative Studies Quarterly 25 (3): 481–497.
Schlesinger, J. 1966. Ambition and politics: Political careers in the United States. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Squire, P. 1992. Legislative professionalization and membership diversity in state legislatures. Legislative Studies Quarterly 17 (1): 69–79.
Squire, P. 1993. Professionalization and public opinion of state legislatures. The Journal of Politics 55 (2): 479–491.
Squire, P. 2007. Measuring state legislative professionalism: The squire index revisited. State Politics & Policy Quarterly 7 (2): 211–227.
The Guardian. 2014. Ed Miliband must cease “Hampstead Heath” politics to win election—MP.
The New Statesman. 2015. Andrew Marr: British politics is broken—the centre cannot hold.
The Telegraph. 2015. Parliament will be poorer if MPs have no experience outside Westminster.
Weber, M. 1919. Politics as a vocation. In From max weber: Essays in sociology, ed. H. Gerth, and C. Wright Mills. London: Routledge.
Acknowledgements
The author is deeply indebted to Anthony King whose invaluable advice and support were intrumental to this paper and the author's career. The author would also like to thank Jonathan Homola, Pippa Norris, Priya Shanmugam, participants at EPSA, Steven Kettell and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Henn, S.J. The further rise of the career politician. Br Polit 13, 524–553 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-017-0061-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-017-0061-9