Getting to the top: The political careers of German party leaders

Existing research on political parties provides broad and valuable insights into the selection of party leaders and its consequences for Germany and beyond. A central focus is on the formal selection process, especially the different selectorates. Other studies focus on the characteristics of party leaders, such as gender, age, or seniority. The present study adds to this strand of research by investigating the political careers of German party leaders and exploring which career paths are more likely to lead to the top of the party organisation. Conceptually, the study starts from a multidimensional understanding of political careers, as politicians can simultaneously hold positions in different branches of the party organisation. I distinguish between positions held in the extraparliamentary party, the party in parliament, and the party in government at different territorial levels. From this perspective, politicians develop distinct career profiles with varying emphasis on the different party branches at different points in time. The study is based on a dataset that captures the career trajectories of 95 German party leaders, separately for each party branch. I apply multichannel sequence analysis to this data as this method is sensitive to both the succession and accumulation of positions held. It reveals groups of similar careers. Further analysis shows that the path to the top varies between parties, suggesting that parties value different types of experience in their leaders and offer different career opportunities. The study complements existing research on the formal aspects of party leader selection by pointing to criteria related to leader characteristics. The study’s findings can be linked to other established areas of research on party leaders, such as the representation of women or the tenure of party leaders. The analytical framework of this study can be used to investigate the careers of leaders and other actors in parties beyond the German case.