Abstract
In this paper we argue that the meaning of family politicization for recruitment in contemporary democratic politics has changed, and can now be reinterpreted in a modern and postmodern way. Starting from Norris’ recruitment model, we scrutinize potential supply (learning and calculation) and demand (screening and selection) side factors that may contribute to an explanation of the permanent disproportional representation of political family members in current politics, witnessing important electoral (volatility, personalization and mediatization) and partisan (cadre parties) shifts. With recruitment data from a survey among Belgian mayors we construct a ‘Political Family Index’ containing a number of variables assessing potential attitudes (interest, preference) and political behaviour (party membership, holding political office) of father and/or mother of those mayors. We found that mayors coming from highly politicized families start their political career at a younger age and are successful earlier. They do not, however, follow an entirely different route to power.
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Notes
However, just as social background should not be interpreted in an absolute deterministic way, the same is true for political family. Not all politicians stem from such families and conversely, growing up in such a family does not necessarily lead to political engagement. Nevertheless, research suggests a clear collusion between the two.
Of course, other family members could also play a role. They were, however, studied in a general sense only. On the question of whether – next to parents – other members of the family have exercised any influence on the formation of the political engagement of the mayor, a bit less than 35 per cent answered positively. Grandparents, uncles and aunts, partners, and brothers and sisters were mentioned most often. In the eyes of the mayor, they exercised more influence by the political mandate these family members had occupied.
Original question: ‘Do you think that your father has been of any influence on the formation of your political engagement in the period before you became a mayor for the first time?’ For mother an analogous question was posed.
The original question was a follow-up for those respondents who answered positively to the question mentioned in the previous footnote. The nine original answering categories were recoded. The category ‘others’ refers to the mayors who mention friends and/or acquaintances of one or both parents, engagement in associational life of one or both parents or the will to oppose one or both parents.
The labelling of these indicators stems from theoretical considerations only. These were not included in the original questionnaire. The labels refer consecutively to the perceived presence of interest in politics in one or both parents, the presence of a clear political preference for a national political party, the membership of an ideologically oriented association, the membership of a political party and the occupation of a political mandate. Father and mother were questioned separately on these indicators.
For father this holds true in 68 per cent of all cases and for mother in a bit less than 63 per cent. Among the traditional parties (Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals) this percentage is highest.
For father the principal component analysis shows one factor with a proportion of the variance explained of 45.7 per cent. Cronbach's α=0.71 for the indicators studied (N=5). For mother a similar dimension is found with 39.9 per cent of the variance explained. Cronbach's α=0.61 (N=5). The latter value could be considered critical and is especially influenced by the low frequency of mothers who occupied a political mandate. For reasons of comparability this indicator is retained in the index.
Principal component analysis of FPI and MPI identifies an underlying dimension, with 75.7 per cent of the variance explained and a factor loading of 0.87. The reliability analysis leads to a value of Cronbach's α of 0.67.
Kolmogorov–Smirnov Z=2.3 with P=0.000.
Flemish mayors: 59.9 per cent (N=227). Mayors from a densely populated municipality: 33.7 per cent (N=124), refers to these mayors who function in the third of municipalities with the highest population density (⩾403 in hour/km2) based on the frequency distribution for this variable. Mayors elected on a national list: 64.5 per cent (N=238). Mayors who were appointed for the first time as a result of the local elections of 1994 =70.1 per cent (N=256).
All independent variables are dummies so that their relative effect on the dependent variable can be compared.
Originally there were seven possible answers to the question. Data were recoded in four categories: self-starter (own initiative, own interest, conviction or idealism), drafted (you were asked), mediated (via family, by friends/acquaintances/colleagues, through associational life) and other (coincidence or other). The differences in initial contact with local politics (recoded) according to PFI are significant with Cramer's V=0.20 and P=0.003.
The original question studied the most important motive the respondent could distinguish for standing on an electoral list for the first time. The original question was open and was coded afterwards. The latter was recoded in the categories displayed in the table: citizen duty (to serve the local population, to extend public involvement in a political mandate), party duty (duty/service to the party/political movement, realize/defend the party/movement ideology/program), policy plans (realize/defend a specific policy program for the municipality), job/career (a step in a political career, to enter an interesting/exiting job domain), change/renewal (change, renewal, rejuvenation in government) and others. The differences in the most important motivation for first candidacy (recoded) according to PFI score were not significant with P=0.54 and Cramer's V=0.11.
For age first time member of a political party P=0.000, for age first candidacy in local elections P=0.090, for age first time elected in local elections P=0.087 and for age first mayoralty P=0.000.
These data reflect the percentage of mayors who belonged to the given category (dummies). For gender, Cramer's V=0.08 with P=0.130; for talking and brokerage professions, Cramer's V=0.00 with P=0.952 and for local roots, Cramer's V=0.05 with P=0.331. In our analysis we have included teachers, managers from the private sector, higher civil servants and people from the liberal professions in the category of brokerage professions.
Cramer's V=0.09 with P=0.086.
This refers to a cumulative index of dummies (0–6) with 3.9 as a mean and 1.7 as a standard deviation (for more background and data, see Steyvers and Reynaert, 2007).
η2=0.12 with P=0.000.
For trade unions η2=0.00 with P=0.389, for IOA η2=0.03 with P=0.005 and for NIOA η2=0.02 with P=0.02.
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van Liefferinge, H., Steyvers, K. Family matters? Degrees of family politicization in political recruitment and career start of mayors in Belgium. Acta Polit 44, 125–149 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2008.20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ap.2008.20