A new political elite in Western Europe The political careers of regional prime ministers in newly decentralised countries.pdf

Original Article

A new political elite in Western Europe?The political careers of regional prime ministersin newly decentralised countries

Joan Botellaa, Juan Rodrguez Teruelb,*, Oscar Barbera`c andAstrid BarriocaUniverstat Auto`noma de Barcelona, Edifici B. Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Valle`s), 08193, Spain.

E-mail: [email protected] School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.

E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] Poltica i de lAdministracio, Universtat de Vale`ncia, Avinguda dels Tarongers, Vale`ncia,

46071, Spain.

E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected]

*Corresponding author.

Abstract This article aims to observe the effects of decentralisation on thepolitical careers of the regional elite in Spain, France and the United Kingdom. Weaddress the main career pathways of these elites, and we test whether the type ofdecentralisation and the duration of decentralisation make a difference to theircareers. The results show different career pathways, and outline the eventualemergence of a new cursus honorum in which local and national career paths aredissociating. Institutional structure and time make a difference. In France, regionalpresidents tend to follow a traditional career path, whereas in Spain we find newterritorial careers. The consolidation of regional institutions seems to favour thedifferentiation of political careers.French Politics (2010) 8, 4261. doi:10.1057/fp.2009.40

Keywords: political elites; multi-level system; regions; prime ministers; politicalcareers; Western Europe

Introduction

Different political decentralisation processes have taken place in recent decadesin Western Europe (Harvie, 1994; Keating, 1998; Caciagli, 2003). This has ledto a growing academic interest in areas in which the impact of the creation ofmultilevel political systems has been most relevant. New political institutionshave arisen as a result of regional decentralisation, the empowerment of local

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governments, and the creation of the European Union. Although subnationalentities are still quite different among European countries, in general theappearance of new regional institutions has been associated with an increase interritorial autonomy. The consequences of this transformation have affectedboth the general process of governance (Marks, 1993; Marks et al, 1996;Brzinski and Lancaster, 1999; John, 2001; Denters and Rose, 2005) and theactors involved, particularly parties and party systems (De Winter and Tursan,1998; Deschower, 2003, 2006; Hopkin, 2003; De Winter et al, 2006; Swendenand Maddens, 2009). Research on political elites has not been left outside thescope of this trend. This is especially true for parliamentary elites: socialrecruitment and its impact on generating consensus and continuity in regionalpolitics, as well as circulation between political arenas (Coller, 1999, 2002,2008; Stolz, 2003, 2005). Conversely, the study of regional executive leaders hasreceived very little attention. With the exception of some prior exploratoryworks (Lopez Nieto, 2003; Bidegaray, 2004), the comparative analysis of themembers of regional cabinets still remains a little-studied field. This gap is evenmore surprising as it involves a key position in the new regional scenario.According to the literature on parliamentary elites, the central question thatshould be addressed in this case is that of what effects decentralisation has hadon the circulation and the cursus honorum of regional cabinet elites. While thisquestion is beyond the capacity of our data, our article does try to advanceour understanding of this new regional political elite in Western Europe.We will analyse the political careers of regional1 prime ministers in Spain(19802009), France (19862009) and the United Kingdom (19992009), inorder to determine their impact on the new regional political arena.

Decentralisation and Political Elites

We can define the relationship between decentralisation and political elites asa relationship of mutual influence. On the one hand, the existence or creationof a new political level influences the selection and circulation of elites. And onthe other, the characteristics of the political elite (values, attitudes andbackground) affect the creation, institutionalisation and evolution of the newinstitutions (Westlake, 1994; Deschouwer, 2001; Verzichelli and Edinger, 2005;Coller et al, 2007, p. 5). This article addresses the first relationship.With regard to the decentralisation effects on regional MPs, Stolz has

distinguished between social distinctiveness relating to the phenomena ofprofessionalisation and the creation of a new social group of regionalpoliticians and territorial distinctiveness relating to differences betweenregional and national politicians (Stolz, 2001a, p. 84, 2003, 2005). In the lattercase, the influence of elites on the evolution of decentralisation can be decisive,

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for regional politicians may become a key actor in increased claims for regionalself-government or, conversely, an agent of territorial integration within thestate (Stolz, 2001a, pp. 9192).Stolzs concept of territorial distinctiveness refers back to a more general

debate on the effects that multilevel political systems have on the integration ofnational political elites and national parties. In this sense, the United Statesand Canada appear as two opposite and paradigmatic examples of integration/bifurcation dynamics in decentralised political systems (Moncrief, 1994;Scarrow, 1997, p. 254). In the United States, incentives favouring ascendingcareers through different levels (multilayered careers) have fostered theintegration of the political elite (Schlesinger, 1958, 1966; Polsby, 1968;Ruchelman, 1970; Shin and Jackson, 1979; Sabato, 1983; Pound, 1992;Francis and Kenny, 2000). A similar pathway seems to derive from the politicalcareers followed by members of parliament and the Ministerprasident in theGerman Lander (Schneider, 2001; Stolz, 2003). Conversely, Canadianfederalism has tended to weaken the integration of party organisationsat different levels, and has also created differentiated political careers, despitethe fact that regional elites have undergone a professionalisation phenomenonparallel to what has occurred in the state legislatures of the United States(Chandler and Chandler, 1987; Barrie and Gibbins, 1989; Carty, 1991;Moncrief and Thompson, 1992; Moncrief, 1994, 1998).The observations of regional prime ministers2 (RPMs) are a good way of

determining the effects of the creation of multilevel systems, although analysisof this subject has been neglected up to now.3 Of course, some of the problemsrelating to parliamentary elites (like professionalisation) cannot be automati-cally transferred to regional cabinet elites. In recently decentralised countries,RPMs head institutions that have met the conditions for high professionalisa-tion since their creation. However, it is relevant to what extent RPMs are fullyintegrated into the national political elite, or whether, conversely, they havebecome a distinctive political elite.The analysis of the political careers offers a good strategy for detecting

the integration or bifurcation of regional and national political elites. Politicalcareers allow us to observe the relationship that is established among politicallevels, as well as their level of commitment to regional institutions. Indeed,these are the questions that have also been studied in relation to the poli-tical careers of Members of European Parliment (MEPs) (Cotta, 1984, p. 126;Scarrow, 1997, p. 254; Stolz, 2003, p. 225).The regional prime ministership has become one of the top positions in the

political hierarchy. They lead a cabinet, run an administration with a publicbudget and personify the territorial representation of the region. They are alsocloser to citizens than national leaders and are therefore better placed toexercise influence over their demands (Coller et al, 2008, p. 114). All these

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resources may become incentives to focus the ambition of national politicianstowards these posts, which would probably make it difficult for outsidersor politicians solely with experience in local politics to reach the post of RPM.From the perspective of political careers, this may lead to two differentsituations. On the one hand, RPMs may come mainly from national insti-tutions. If so, we can expect to find RPMs with important political experiencein national parliaments and executives. On the other hand, the creation of newregional institutions may be used (as suggested by the thesis on territorialdistinctiveness) by a new regional or local elite to turn it into a base of power.In sum, our first and main hypothesis aims to test whether the new regionalleaders arising from decentralisation have a cursus honorum with local-regionalpredominance (as a reflection of the territorial distinctiveness produced bydecentralisation). Depending on the extent to which regional leaders comefrom the centre of the system, we can draw conclusions about the extent towhich the new regional governments have become attractive for the nationalpolitical elite. This could lead to an integration of regional and nationalpolitics. Conversely, the emergence of models of territorial careers, which donot need to pass through the centre, could be an indication of the segregationor bifurcation of the regional political elite.There may also be variation over time. Our second hypothesis states that the

progressive consolidation of regional institutions may lead to specific careerpatterns and encourage the differentiation of the regional elite. Althoughdecentralisation processes initially tend to be controlled and promoted bynational political elites, the institutionalisation of regional self-governmentsmay foster an increasing differentiation of regional leaders with predominantlylocal-regional careers. If this happens, it is likely that models of regionalpolitical careers will gain momentum, to the detriment of national careermodels.

Methodology

We analyse the RPMs in three Western European countries that haveundergone a process of decentralisation since the 1970s, and deal with thepolitical careers of the heads of regional governments in France, Spain andthe United Kingdom. The empirical analysis includes two types of variables:first, several variables related to the background of individuals in differentpolitical arenas, and second, the variable types of political careers, whichreconstructs the individuals cursus honorum as a sole indicator, through theaggregation of the different arenas, ordered sequentially.Our analysis will include the 164 heads of government4 of the 45 regions

of France, Spain and the United Kingdom.5 Since the beginning of the



decentralisation processes, regional heads of government have increasedsubstantially. In Spain, 73 presidentes autonomicos have been elected betweenthe 1980 and 2009 elections (for a total of 124 legislative terms). In France,between the elections of 1986 and 2009, the number has grown to 83 presidentsof conseils regionaux (for 103 legislative terms). In contrast, the relatively smallgeographic size and relatively short time in which devolution has been in forcemean that only six first ministers in Scotland and Wales were elected between1999 and 2009.France, Spain and the United Kingdom were unitary states that experienced,

in the past 30 years, a process of decentralisation, without achieving a federalmodel and with great differences among them. Decentralisation has led to thecreation of regional levels with their own representative institutions. In all ofthem there is an elected assembly that nominates a head of the regionalgovernment on the basis of a parliamentary majority for a legislative period(4 years in Spain and the United Kingdom and 6 years in France). However,there are substantial differences among these three countries. First, there existsan enormous disparity in the temporal dimension of regional institutions. If wetake the first regional elections as a starting point, Spain initiated its trajectoryalmost 30 years ago, whereas the United Kingdom has barely accumulated10 years. Second, the degree of decentralisation is diverse in each case. Whilein France all of the regions initially enjoyed limited competencies and lackedlegislative autonomy, in English and Spanish regions the competencies weremuch greater. In Spain, some communities had many more initial competenciesthan others, but their evolution has tended to equalise them. Third, theterritorial extension of decentralisation is not homogenous. While in Spainand France all of the national territory has been divided into regions (moreunequal in geographical size and population in Spain than in France), in theUnited Kingdom decentralisation has been limited territorially, leaving outthe most important region (England). Finally, it is important to notedifferences in other institutional rules that indirectly determine access toregional leadership, like the electoral system (proportional for the UnitedKingdom and Spain, majoritarian since 2004 for France) or the rulesconcerning the compatibility of political offices (much more restrictive inSpain than in the United Kingdom or France, where the tradition of cumul desmandats predominates).

The Political Careers of RPMs

Political careers in each political arena

A general and comparative analysis of countries based on the RPMstrajectories shows common threads and differences (Table 1). First, a common

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Table 1: Regional prime ministers experience in political arenas

Spain France United

Kingdom

All

Local level

He had a local posty 42.5 90.6 33.3 67.1y but had already left it 28.8 16.5 33.3 22.6y until becoming PM and then left 13.7 9.4 0 11.0y and kept it after being appointed PM 0 64.7 0 33.5

Mayor 19.2 63.5 0 41.5

Years in local posts (average) 9.5 17.2 8.0 14.9

Years as mayor (average) 11.2 15.2 0 14.3

Supra-municipal levela

Supra-municipal post 33.3 54.1 16.7 49.1

Leader of a supra-municipal executive 20.0 9.4 16.7 11.3

Years in supra-municipal posts (average) 8.4 12.8 12.3

(n) 15 85 6 106

Regional level

Regional post (any) 58.9 54.1 66.7 56.7

Regional MP 50.7 51.8 66.7 51.8

Regional minister 30.1 16.5 50.0 23.8

Years in regional posts 6.6 7.8 1.5 7.0

National parliament

He was an MPy 47.9 56.5 83.3 53.7y but had already left it 16.4 17.6 0 16.5y until becoming PM and then left 26.0 4.7 0 14.0y and kept it after being appointed PM 5.5 34.1 83.3 23.2

Low chamber 13.7 12.9 0 12.8

Upper chamber 35.6 48.2 83.3 43.9

Years as MP (average) 4.6 12.7 16.0 9.7

National executive

He had an office in national executivey 12.3 31.8 50.0 23.8y but had already left it 8.2 28.2 16.7 18.9y until becoming PM and then left 4.1 0 33.3 3.0y and kept it after being appointed PM 0 3.5 0 1.8

Head of State or Prime Minister 0 3.7 0 1.8

Cabinet Minister 6.8 28.2 33.3 12.2

Junior Minister and other executive posts 5.5 12.9 16.7 9.8

Years in executive posts (average) 4.7 4.8 2.0 4.5

European union

MEP 1.4 7.1 0 4.3

Years as MEP (average) 2.0 4.2 3.9

(n) 73 85 6 164

aSupra-municipal offices included here are Conseil General (France), Cabildos and Diputacion

General (Spain, in Canary islands and Basque Country) and Regional Councils in the United

Kingdom.

Source: Authors elaboration from official sources.



pattern appears in careers in the three countries, with slight variations (between54.4 per cent in France and 66.7 per cent in the United Kingdom). Previousregional experience constitutes a very relevant credential in the subsequentascension to regional leadership.6 It is logical that the parliamentary nature ofthe regional executive exercises a strong bias in favour of prior parliamentaryexperience on the part of the main leader. Nevertheless, there are many headsof government that did not previously pass through the regional assembly (fourof every 10 individuals). Additionally, their previous experience in regionalinstitutions, as members of parliament or counsellors, is very short at just7 years. This limits the general scope of the hypothesis on distinctiveness, atleast that which is generated by strictly regional careers, and suggests thegreater importance of local and national trajectories.Previous regional experience is similar in Spain and France. In the British

case, the low number of regional first ministers in the United Kingdom to dateallows for two possible tendencies: either they will follow the national Britishtradition, in which case the head of government requires a previous solidparliamentary career in the national political arena, or else they will imitatewhat is observed in Spain or France.Second, experience in local institutions appears as a credential of prime

importance, whether in town councils or in supra-municipal entities (the conseilgeneral in France and the island and county entities found in some Spanishcommunities). Not only do these have more weight than regional mandates,but they have also developed over a considerably longer period of time. It isalso important to highlight the significant presence of mayors among the headsof regional governments. Here, we can detect strong links between the regionalleadership and local political formation that characterises territorial notables(Bidegaray, 2004).The weight of national experience shows important differences among

countries. While in France the local experience of regional leaders is very high(nine out of 10 individuals held a municipal office and half passed throughthe conseils generaux), it is less in the case of Spain (only four of 10) and almostzero in the United Kingdom. The French cursus honorum makes it nearlya requirement to have dedicated more than 15 years to local institutions(frequently city hall) in order to attain regional leadership later on.A significant number of mayors remain in office while simultaneouslyexercising the office of president of regional councils. Many others, forcedby the restrictions on the cumul des mandats, resign as mayor but retain adjunctpositions as advisors to the mayor during the period of their regionalpresidency. These facts demonstrate the extent to which the creation of regionsin France has not been able to prevent the dominance of local elites, to thedetriment of the creation of a truly new regional elite (Bidegaray, 2004).Additionally, two of every three French regional presidents have maintained

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the mayoral post concurrently, although when forced to choose between thetwo because of the restrictions on the cumul des mandats they have preferredto resign from local office in favour of regional leadership.7 Finally, in thepolitical careers of French leaders, local experience is also acquired with a postto the conseil general, although rarely as president of that institution.Third, the trajectory via the national arena, principally the parliament, also

appears as a relevant credential. Half of the heads of government were nationalparliamentarians and one in four had a post in the government. Parliamentaryresponsibilities are primarily found in the lower house (the Congress ofDeputies, the National Assembly and the House of Commons). On the otherhand, national office occupies less time in their careers than local posts. Thismight indicate a lesser weight for this arena, but it probably means theopposite: the national arena allows for an accumulation of political capitalsufficient to reach regional leadership in less time than in the local arena.There are also notable differences across the countries with regard to

experience in national institutions, varying between the predominance oftrajectories via the national arena in the Scottish and Welsh cases (83.3 percent) and a lesser significance of these in the French (60 per cent) and Spanishcases (49.3 per cent). Accordingly, experience in the House of Commons iscommon among Scottish and Welsh prime ministers. In contrast, this type ofcredential is not as common in French and Spanish individuals. Additionally,the national parliamentary term is maintained in all instances in the UnitedKingdom, in half the cases in France and in almost no cases in Spain, whereindividuals tend to resign from their national seat when they are elected asautonomous community presidents.8 This lesser experience is also reflected inthe duration of the parliamentary post: Spanish presidents spend barely 4 yearson average in the national parliament, whereas the French presidents triple thatnumber, and the British quadruple it.There are notable differences among countries in experience of members of

national government. Only one in 10 Spanish autonomous presidents were inthe government,9 while half of the first ministers of Scotland and Wales wereministers or held other high posts in Whitehall. In addition, many of theseBritish ministers were involved in ministries linked to the devolution, shortlyafter which they passed into the leadership at new regional institutions. Moretime will have to pass in order to determine whether what is significant in thetrajectory of the British first ministers is having been a minister (in which casethis route will be maintained), or having been linked to the initial process ofdevolution (in which case the ministerial route could gradually diminish).Finally, it is worth noting the insignificance of European credentials in the

cursus honorum of regional leaders. This is consonant with the pattern ofemerging European careers, namely, as a final destination for a set group ofnational politicians, and less and less a specific career path (Scarrow, 1997;



Stolz, 2001b). In this sense, the French case is unique in that there is a(minority) presence of regional presidents that have passed through theEuropean Parliament. Nevertheless, rules limiting the cumul des mandats nowalso limit access to the European Parliament with concurrent regional termsof office. In subsequent years this has limited the extension of this credentialamong French regional leaders.

Top-down or bottom-up political careers?

The previous point demonstrates that regional elites do not present patternsof simple and homogeneous careers. We are not seeing political outsiders, butpoliticians with a wide range of political experiences, in many cases in differentarenas of the political system. To be able to support our first hypothesis, wemust look at the sequence of trajectories via career patterns.Arranging political experiences into a single indicator is not easy for

individuals who have followed highly varied careers. We find three broadmodels (one-level, two-level and multilevel), which are subdivided into eightsecondary models, according to the level that has prevailed in the career overtime (see Table 2). If individuals from these elites come from the centre and areintegrated into the national elite, career patterns with a national predominancewill be detected. Conversely, if we find elites with distinctive or bifurcated

Table 2: Definition of political careers types

Type of career Number of

political levelsaOffices included

National one-level One Only national posts (MP or executive)

Regional one-level One Only regional posts

Local one-level One Only local posts (local or supra-municipal)

National two-level Two Started always at national level (parliament

or executive) and extended through

regional level

Local two-level Two Started always at local level and extended

through regional level

Multilevel with national

predominance

Three Started at national level, generally in

national posts

Multilevel with local

predominance

Three Started at local level, generally in local

posts

Regional Predominance Two or three Generally in regional posts

aWe distinguish three levels: local (municipal and supra-municipal arenas), regional and national

(parliamentarian and executive arenas). Because of the insignificant weight of European posts in

political careers, they are not included in this typology).

Source: Authors own data from official sources.

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traits, the presidents will have had careers with local or regional predominance.The data are set forth in Table 3.In France, 67 per cent of regional presidents start their political careers in

local institutions and then move through two, three or even four levels duringtheir political careers.10 After this path, individuals become regional presidents,holding a local post simultaneously with a regional or national post. Amongthe main political career models, a large majority have careers with localpredominance (67.1 per cent). Compared to this figure, careers with nationalpredominance have less weight (20 per cent), although almost all of them are

Table 3: The political career of regional prime ministers: start and itinerary

Spain France United Kingdom All

First post

Municipal 42.5 58.8 33.3 50.6

Supra-municipal 0 8.2 0 4.3

Regional 21.9 5.9 0 12.8

MP 24.7 16.5 66.7 22.0

National executive 4.1 4.7 0 4.3

No posts 6.8 5.9 0 6.1

Last post before regional PM

Municipal 8.2 24.7 0 16.5

Supra-municipal 1.4 10.6 0 6.1

Regional 50.7 29.4 50.0 39.6

MP 24.7 16.5 16.7 18.3

National executive 6.8 11.8 33.3 12.2

MEP 1.4 1.2 0 1.2

No posts 6.8 5.9 0 6.1

Number of political arenas

One arena 46.6 8.2 0 25.0

Two arenas 23.3 23.5 66.7 25.0

Tree arenas 19.2 30.6 16.7 25.0

Four arenas 4.1 20.0 0 12.2

Five or six arenas 0 11.8 16.7 6.7

Type of political careers

National one-level 17.8 0 0 7.9

Regional one-level 20.5 1.2 0 9.8

Local one-level 8.2 4.7 0 6.1

National two-level 11.0 1.2 66.7 7.9

Local two-level 16.4 27.1 16.7 22.0

Multilevel with national predominance 5.5 18.8 16.7 12.8

Multilevel with local predominance 11.0 35.3 0 23.2

Regional predominance 2.7 5.9 0 4.3

Without political background 6.8 5.9 0 6.1

(n) 73 85 6 164




multilevel. Conversely, there are hardly any examples of careers that arespecifically or predominantly regional (7.1 per cent).Despite the important political paths of regional presidents and the

predominance of local experience, we cannot determine a clear trend towardsdifferentiation or bifurcation. The majority of careers with local predominanceis multilevel (35.3 per cent), which means that they have also moved throughthe national level, while there are less that are two-level (27.1 per cent), whichare the most genuinely territorial in that they have not passed through thecentre, except in a couple cases. Only 40 per cent of presidents have not heldnational posts, of which the majority are politicians with political careerscarved out in municipalities and departments. Consequently, the majority ofFrench regional presidents maintain a pattern of mandate accumulation,similar to the rest of the French political elite, despite attempts by the legislatorto establish limits on accumulation with the aim of favouring regionallyorientated careers (Knapp, 1991). Everything points to the fact that the powerof regional leaders continues to be linked to their positions in other arenas ofFrench politics (Nay, 1997, p. 185).In the case of the United Kingdom, individuals have a type of political career

that is concentrated in the Parliament of Westminster and the corridors ofWhitehall. The political careers of the first ministers of Wales and Scotlandhave been channelled through parliament. Almost all of them started theircareers as national parliamentarians, and then moved on to holding posts asministers or high executive posts. Later they come to power as representativesin regional parliaments and were later nominated as first ministers.11 As aresult, thus far the careers of the few cases share an identical pattern, with smalland circumstantial differences.Compared to France and the United Kingdom, Spanish presidents exhibit

the clearest traits of political specialisation in regional entities, although theyalso have high degrees of diversity in their previous political careers. First, fourof every 10 autonomous community presidents started their careers at themunicipal level (42.5 per cent), whereas the rest secured their first post at anational level (28.8 per cent) or at a regional level (21.9 per cent). The majorityonly passed through one level, although one in four were at three levels ormore. Half accessed the autonomous community presidency from a regionalpost, although one of every four came from a national post. Faced with thisscenario, it is not unreasonable to conclude that there is not a common patternthat leads to an autonomous community presidency in Spain. Moreover, thereare careers that are totally or predominantly local (35.6 per cent), a proportionof them also moving through national parliament. Second, there are careerswith national predominance (34.3 per cent) that almost never go through alocal level. Nonetheless, the great difference between Spanish regions and thoseof France and Britain is the existence of careers carried out exclusively or

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predominantly in the parliament and regional governments (23.2 per cent).This supports the existence of distinctive and bifurcated political careersamong the regional governmental elite.The degree of statistical correlation among the different arenas confirms the

solidity of some of the relationships among arenas (Table 4). First, a negativerelationship appears between regional experience and the national parliamen-tary arena, which indicates that a proportion of those who move throughregional posts tend not to pass through the national parliament. It also showsthe relationship between the two local arenas on the one hand and between thetwo national arenas on the other. Thus, those who pass through supra-municipal entities (conseil general in France, municipal councils in the CanaryIslands, general council in the Basque Country) also tend to move through themunicipalities. Second, those who have held posts in the national governmenttend to have also held posts in the national parliament (which points towardsthe hypothesis that many of them have top-down careers). Finally, those whohold supra-municipal posts tend to move through national posts, which makesthe traditional French cursus honorum model clear whereby a proportion of thepolitical elite start their career paths in conseils generaux.Overall, there are noteworthy differences in political careers depending on

the country, owing to the different structure of opportunities. The careers ofBritish leaders follow the national two-level pattern, which has allowed nationalpoliticians to be recruited to the front lines of the new regional governments. InFrance, on the other hand, presidents have followed the traditional pattern ofthe accumulation of municipal and national posts, to which leadership inregional governments has been added. Finally, in Spain presidencies aredistributed among those who have followed bottom-up careers with local

Table 4: Correlation among experiences in different arenas

France Spain United Kingdom All

Municipal supra-municipal 0.188 0.472 0.632 0.282**

Regional municipal 0.188 0.154 0.500 0.109

Regional supra-municipal 0.185 0.000 0.316 0.163Regional parliament 0.142 0.257* 0.316 0.195*Regional executive 0.031 0.307** 0.707 0.061Parliament municipal 0.205 0.048 0.632 0.039Parliament supra-municipal 0.287** 0.289 0.200 0.299**

Parliament executive 0.446** 0.307** 0.447 0.404**

Executive municipal 0.133 0.015 0.000 0.124

Executive supra-municipal 0.223* 0.447 0.236*

*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).



predominance, those who have developed top-down careers with nationalpredominance and those who have focused primarily on regional entities. Thegreater number of these ones makes a difference with respect to France and theUnited Kingdom.These data suggest that the greater the decentralisation, combined with a

broader structure of opportunities, the greater the territorial distinctivenessof regional political leaders up to a certain point. Following our firsthypothesis, this differentiation arises from careers that are exclusively regionalor local-regional, in which regional leaders separate from the traditionalchannels that take place in the national arena. Nonetheless, if this relationshipwere correct, we also would have to note the positive evolution of thesedifferentiated careers as regional levels are institutionalised.

Differences among careers over time?

Our second hypothesis asked whether regional and local careers increase overtime as regional institutions are established. Data in Table 5 provide someanswer to this. In the case of Spain, national political careers were moreimportant during the early years of decentralisation than the later years.Without reaching equal ranking, the image of the first regional Spanishpresidents is similar to the trajectories of British first ministers and Frenchpresidents. Of course, the context of democratisation meant that early on therewas a lack of alternatives for the political elite. Conversely, the characteristicsof the presidents elected in the last term of office already have verydifferentiated traits with respect to their predecessors. The majority ofautonomous community presidents in 2007 have passed through town councilsand autonomous entities, while a difference is revealed between those whohave held national posts and those who have not. The evolution of experiencein the different levels of Spanish presidents can be seen more clearly throughthe movement in terms of office (Figure 1). Regional experience becomesa basic requirement for accessing the frontlines of the government, in parallelto municipal experience. Conversely, the number of presidents who havebeen in the national parliament has constantly decreased over time. Bycontrast, the presence of ex-minister presidents has not stopped growing,especially in the most recent terms of office. This suggests a progressiveincrease in the political value of autonomous community presidencies. As apolitical career pattern is shaped that is typical of an autonomous communitypresident, only national leaders who have been in the government findthemselves in a position to compete for election to autonomous communitygovernments, whereas the national parliamentarians no longer follow thisroute.

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The French case apparently shows a similar evolution. However, the increaseaffects all levels equally, unlike in Spain. French presidents elected since 2004have in all cases held a municipal post in the past and have been, in almostall cases, mayors. Both in Spain and in France, the institutionalisation ofregional governments has entailed an increase in the number of areas throughwhich their heads of government move. However, this has a different meaningin each individual case. In France, decentralisation has simply contributed toexpanding the number of levels through which the national elite pass, while inSpain it has contributed to the emergence of political careers with regionalpredominance.The longitudinal vision of the careers of Spanish and French presidents blurs

some differences among countries, but makes others emerge. While in France itseems to be the case that the evolution of RPMs contributes to integrating theregional level into the pool of available posts, in Spain two phenomena can be

Table 5: Differences among political careers depending on legislative terms

First plus second terms Last term

All Spain France UK All Spain France

Posts

Municipal 60.0 28.1 84.8 40.0 81.6 57.1 100

Alcalde 33.7 6.2 56.5 0 61.2 38.1 78.6

Supra-municipal 54.4 33.3 60.9 20.0 53.1 50.0 53.6

Regional 34.9 34.4 32.6 60.0 75.5 71.4 78.6

MP 59.0 59.4 56.5 80.0 55.1 42.9 64.3

National executive 22.9 6.2 30.4 60.0 36.7 28.6 42.9

Number of political arenas

One arena 28.9 56.2 13.0 0 16.3 38.1 0

Two arenas 21.7 21.9 15.2 80.0 24.5 23.8 25.0

Three arenas 21.7 6.2 34.8 0 30.6 33.3 28.6

Four arenas 9.6 3.1 15.2 0 16.3 4.8 25.0

Five or six arenas 7.2 0 10.9 20.0 12.2 0 21.5

Type of political careers

National one-level 14.5 37.5 0 0 0 0 0

Regional one-level 3.6 9.4 0 0 10.2 23.8 0

Local one-level 8.4 9.4 8.7 0 6.1 14.3 0

National two-level 8.4 12.5 0 60.0 8.2 14.3 3.6

Local two-level 19.3 9.4 26.1 0 22.4 19.0 25.0

Multilevel with national predominance 16.9 6.2 23.9 20.0 14.3 9.5 17.9

Multilevel with local predominance 18.1 3.1 30.4 20.0 34.7 14.3 50.0

Regional predominance 0 0 0 0 4.1 4.8 3.6

Without political background 10.8 12.5 10.9 0 0 0 0

(n) 83 32 46 5 49 21 28




distinguished more clearly. On the one hand, there is the appearance ofindividuals who become RPMs from territorial careers (local and/or regional).On the other, there is an increase in national leaders who have passedthrough the central government and decided to transfer to autonomouspolitics. In both cases, the institutionalisation of autonomous communitiesseems to have generated its own and specific value for regional leadership.We do not have sufficient longitudinal data to include the British case. But thedifferent evolutions of the French and Spanish cases open a question about theevolution of regional British leaders as time goes on.

Conclusions

The recent decentralisation of some countries in Western Europe opens up aresearch agenda about the effects that this decentralisation has on the politicalelite and whether it fosters the bifurcation of political careers for the newregional political elite. This hypothesis, which has been stated in the study ofregional parliamentarians, can be applied to RPMs. The appearance of newregional leaders should be able to be empirically detected through politicalcareers with regional predominance or with a local-regional pattern. None-theless, the profiles of political careers are highly dependent on the structure of

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

LocalRegionalParliamentExecutive

I II III IV V VI VII

Figure 1: Spanish RPMs background in political arenas.

Source: Authors own data.

Botella et al


opportunities in each political system (electoral system, compatibility rules andso on), as well as on the degree of consolidation of regional institutions. Asa result, we should also expect differences in career patterns among countriesand over time.The data collected on heads of regional government in Spain, France and the

United Kingdom partly corroborate both hypotheses, but also introduce someunexpected results. Thus, the majority of RPMs have had political careers inmany different political arenas. The diversity of these routes makes it difficultto measure possible differences with respect to the national political elite. Thepolitical value that the region has acquired has raised the price of the cursushonorum necessary to reach a position of leadership there, and the individualswho do attain it are professional politicians with long careers. However, thereis some evidence that points towards the appearance of a typical trajectory ofsuch leaders. The growing importance of previous experience in thegovernment or parliament of the region seems to parallel the reduction inexperience in national parliamentary posts. At the same time, local entitiesare seen as arenas that are conducive to the political careers of future regionalpresidents. As a consequence, the local/regional pattern seems to bestrengthened over time, so that regional institutionalisation favours politicalcareers that are increasingly more focused on the territory and less dependenton the centre.Nonetheless, this general panorama is highly conditioned by the structure of

opportunities and the political decentralisation model of each country. In thecase of the United Kingdom, the political weakness of local government andthe role of Westminster as a recruitment centre for political elites are clearlyreflected in the political careers of Scottish and Welsh first ministers. However,the development of devolved entities may strengthen the territorial profile of itsleaders and encourage them to follow the evolution of Spanish regionalpresidents. Both countries have in common the political attractiveness of a highregional decentralisation. Thus, in Spain a growing distinctiveness is seen inthe political careers of autonomous community presidents who come from thenational arena and those who have not held posts there. Conversely, in Francethe long political trajectories of regional presidents does not seem to make anydifference, but rather contributes to the cumul des mandats in French politics.This tradition still makes a difference in a regional context. However, Frenchregional presidencies seem to increasingly be a destination point and not just anintermediate transit point. This could end up introducing changes in the valueof regions in the cursus honorum of the French elite.These initial conclusions spotlight future questions that we must bear in

mind. On the one hand, it is advisable to expand the field of comparison withother countries with similar levels of decentralisation to some of those includedin this study (Belgium, Italy). On the other , we should expand the observation



of the heads of regional governments subsequent political careers, analysingthe routes that they have taken after leaving the government, that is, wherethey come from and where they go afterwards. Both procedures let us check theconclusions of our first hypothesis, in order to see how far possibledifferentiation extends to other decentralised systems and whether differentia-tion necessarily means the bifurcation and separation of elites in differentarenas. Finally, it would also be advisable to use more qualitative data suchas interviews with political leaders, in order to verify, given the problem ofgreater longitudinal perspectives, whether the creation of specific regionalpatterns of political careers affects the political attitudes of the regionalleaders.

Acknowledgements

This research has been funded by the Project SEJ2006-15076-C03-02, fromMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovacion; the Project SEJ-4032, from Junta deAndaluca; and the Institut de Cie`ncies Poltiques i Socials, from Barcelona.Juan Rodrguez Teruel is Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economicsand Political Science and at The Open University with a grant funded by theBeatriu de Pinos Program of the Generalitat de Catalunya. A previous versionof this article was presented at the World Congress of Political Science inSantiago de Chile (July 2009), and at the ECPR General Conference inPotsdam (September 2009). The authors appreciate the comments receivedthere, and the suggestions made by Regis Dandoy during the research process,as well as those made by the two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 We use the term regional following the common usage employed in studies on decentralisation

in Europe. However, we are aware that regional may have a negative connotation for some

supporters of the decentralized institutions, who claim a national identity for these ones. In

this study, we make reference to regional or subnational entities as the new level between

local and state, distinguishing them from other national or central institutions corresponding

to a state level.

2 We use the term regional prime minister for every country, although this terminology is

controversial in France and Spain, where these posts are called presidents. However, they are

heads of regional executives selected by the regional parliament and not directly elected by the

voters. Therefore, we consider that the term regional prime minister is less misleading from a

comparative point of view.

3 In federal systems, heads of subnational government have not received systematic and

comparative analysis either. Among the most relevant studies, meriting mention are works

devoted to the governors in the United States (Sabato, 1978; Beyle, 2004) and to the German

Ministerprasident (Schneider, 2001). Although the political careers of the Canadian premiers

Botella et al


have not been studied as a whole, there are works on their influence on the provincial

governments of Canada in progress (Pal and Taras, 1988; Dunn, 1996; Bernier et al, 2005).

4 In this study, we consider only those heads of regional governments who have been appointed

by an assembly directly elected by citizens. Therefore, we have excluded individuals who held

interim posts or those who came to office by indirectly elected assemblies at the beginning of a

period of autonomy (such in France until 1986 or in Spain until the first autonomous region

elections).

5 Owing to the special features of government evolution in Northern Ireland, we have not

included it in this study.

6 By prior regional experience, we mean experience as a regional parliamentarian or minister in a

previous term of office in the case of coming into government power at the beginning of a term,

or experience from the beginning of the present term of office for those who come into power at

mid-term. At the time of appointment, all regional heads of government studied are in turn

members of the parliamentary assembly, given that in most regions analysed this is an

indispensable requirement to be able to obtain parliaments trust.

7 Four regional French presidents resigned from their mayorship to be able to access regional

posts. Some of them had obtained mayorship only a few years earlier (Claude Gewerc, Jean-Luc

Harusseau and Pierre Joel Bonte had been in office for barely 3 years). In contrast, Georges

Freche had an extremely long career path of 27 years as mayor of Montpellier.

8 Unlike the United Kingdom and France, the post of regional minister in Spain is incompatible

with being a national MP. Conversely, the regional post is compatible with holding a seat in the

Senate, and therefore many Spanish regional ministers enter lower chambers as representatives

of regional parliaments.

9 Five Spanish RPMs were ministers before attaining regional posts: M. Chaves, J.A. Grinan.

J. Montilla, E. Aguirre and M. Fraga, who was a minister in Francos government and who

later was leader of the Alianza Popular during the first 10 years of democracy. J. Matas was a

minister between his first and second terms in office as RPM of the Balearic Islands.

10 Adrien Zeller, president of the Alsace Regional Council since 1997, symbolises the culmination

of a multilevel career, having moved through all the political arenas analysed after starting his

political career in 1973. Before obtaining regional presidency, Zeller had been mayor of

Saverne, general councillor of Bas-Rhin, regional councillor of Alsace, deputy in the National

Assembly, Secretary of State of Social Security and MEP.

11 The only exception to this model was Jack McConnell, whose career began as a local councillor

in Stirling. In 1992 he became the General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party. In the late

1990s, he was a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention. After being minister of the

new Scottish executive for 2 years, he became first minister in 2001.

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