Post-public office career regulations: A comparative analysis

The need to regulate post-public office careers of former Members of Parliament (MPs) and ministers is increasingly acknowledged by countries. While regulations concerning post-ministerial careers have been established for a longer period of time, many countries also set up rules to guide post-parliamentary careers of former MPs. Consequently, a wide variety of regulations exists which set different standards for restricting and reporting post-public office employment. This paper uses newly collected data to categorize and analyse existing regulations that target MPs and ministers across GRECO member states. The main research question is ‘what factors explain the existence of post-public office career regulations of former MPs and ministers?’. After mapping the existing regulations in these countries, the paper tests the effect of institutional factors relating to the political system (such as the party system) as well as factors relating to the level of clientelism and patronage to explain the variation. The paper also discusses the normative implications of these regulations.