Party Change and Multi-Level Career Paths in Italy. 2013-2018

In this paper we aim to analyse the relationship between the process of organizational transformation of political parties and the consolidation of political careers. The case selected for our analysis is that of the Italian multi-level governance, which has been at the core of an series of reforms in the past two decades. More precisely, we analyse the changing patterns of political careers in different parties emerged or consolidated between the 2013 and the 2018 elections, to test a few hypotheses about the conditions for the persistence of a strong “national” pathway to power or, on the contrary, for the emergence of a more compound system of integrated career. The main phenomena to be explored are the following: (1) The growing reputational and financial attractiveness of local executive positions would have determined a bidirectional system of political careers; (2)The importance of leaders and personalized politics would have determined a chaotic system of political careers, with a circulation conditioned by the decisions of the leaders; (3) The existence of a myriad of party organizations, from the heirs of the classic mass-parties to the challenger parties, would have determined a very changeable framework for multi-level political career. A first statistical analysis will be conducted on an original dataset including several elite positions from the local to the national level. Such an study will allow us to make a comprehensive assessment of the way the politicians invest their political career. The analysis of the variance across parties and across territories will bring empirical evidence to a few propositions, corresponding to the above indicated phenomena. Although based on the sole analysis of the Italian case, we believe this work can make a relevant contribution also in a truly comparative perspective.