A Career Catalyst: How Youth Wing Experience impacts Party Leaders’ Political Survival

Political experience can be an important factor in a party leader's survival in office. Previous studies on party leaders have focused on how they are selected and what factors contribute to their survival, but have not adequately explored the role of youth wing experience in political careers. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationship between previous positions in political youth wing organizations and party leader survival in four parliamentary systems over the postwar period from 1945 to 2021. The study uses a survival analysis and several measures of youth wing experience to assess the impact of this specific type of political experience on party leader duration. The analyses show that experience in the party's youth wing significantly contributes to party leader survival in office. The results suggest that party leaders with this specific type of experience reach higher party positions faster and almost twice as often than those without such experience. In addition, there is a gender imbalance in youth wing experience, which provides a potential explanation for previously found gendered leadership patterns.