Most research studying the politics of bureaucratic mobility – often referred to as politicization – tends to measure turnover without distinguishing between differing types of mobility. Yet not all departures are the same. Whether a public official is moved to an equivalent position, is demoted to another position in the public service, or is altogether fired says something different about the government’s relationship to the public service. Drawing upon Meyer-Shaling’s (2008) typology discriminating between bounded, open and partisan mobility this paper examines the relationship between political variables and different types of mobility with an original dataset of deputy minister turnover in Canada’s provincial bureaucracies. The findings advance research by showing that different political variables are more likely than others to lead to different types of mobility.
