Multilevel career movement patterns around the world

In this presentation, I provide an extensive review of the career patterns of politicians in twenty-seven multi-level countries worldwide, the largest number ever analyzed. While supporting previous claims on some of the determinants of multilevel careers, the analysis shows that political, party, and electoral system features provide the strongest explanations for divergence in the development of career movement patterns in multi-level systems worldwide. A set of novel factors, most notably, the existence of a dominant party, power-sharing agreements, and asymmetrical federal design are also introduced. In conclusion, I identify new avenues of research on political careers and comparative federalism.