Parliamentary Careers in a Multilevel Political System: The Identity Factor in a Test of the Classical Spring-Board Model

In this paper we will try to answer some of the questions posted in the panel outline regarding political careers in multilevel political systems: whether and to what extent the classical career “spring-model” is still predominant regarding parliamentarians political careers, and whether the regional legislatures are gaining salience and attractiveness for regional politicians –so the national legislature is not seen as much as it used to be as the career culmination position for MPs. In doing so we will tackle what is the role of national-identity different from the State-wide one in those careers, as well as some other political dimensions –such as degree of previous political experience, both in institutions as well as in the party. To do so, we will analyse the case of the Spanish 17 regional Parliaments in relation to the National Congreso de los Diputados, in the last two pair of elections. That number of units of analysis will allow to compare different cases with not so different political institutional designs.