Old Tricks, New Dogs: Elites and Political Leadership in Contemporary Politics

Section Chair: Patrick Dumont, University of Luxembourg Section Co-Chair: Matt Kerby, (ANU); Mark Bennister, Canterbury Christ Church University This Section is sponsored by the ECPR Standing Group on Elites and Political Leadership. The Panels bring together contemporary debates, traditions and trajectories that students of both political and social elites and political leadership share, ranging from those that focus on theory and method to structure and agency. The scope is far-reaching and considers the developed and developing worlds as well as a range of actors in their capacities as elites and leaders. Panels 1 and 6 are co-sponsored by the Gender SG and the SGEU, respectively. We also co-sponsor Panels in the Parliaments and in the Methods SG sections. Proposed Panels: 1 Gendering Pathways to Political Leadership in Comparative Context (Jennifer Curtin (University of Auckland)) Women’s promotion to cabinet and into (and out of) political leadership has garnered much popular attention in the past few years, in part prompted by key ‘moments’ in the Anglo-American world. This panel aims to explore in further depth gendered variations in elite career paths (appointment, promotion and exit) and portfolio responsibilities. The focus is on comparing women and men, across political jurisdictions, at both national and sub-national level, and changes over time, across country cases, using quantitative and/or qualitative methods of analysis. 2 The resources of leadership – how leaders became what they are (Isabelle Borucki (University of Trier)) The Panel raises and addresses questions about resources of leaders in the socio-political area (parties, governments, administration, NGOs/interest groups) from different perspectives. The resource capacities of a leader consist not only in personal or structural sources but also may include collective, individual, external and internal resources leaders rely on; or not since leaders’ capacity of successfully mobilizing those resources has not been investigated so far. The Panel aims at putting together research strands such as leadership capital index, political elite recruiting and the presidentialization of politics. 3 Pathways to Power: Political Careers of Chief Executives: (Ferdinand Müller‐Rommel (Luneburg)) Elite studies have extensively dealt with the recruitment of politicians at local, regional, national, and supra‐national level. Yet these studies have focused predominantly on legislative representatives and ministers, while only a limited attention has been payed to political careers of chief executives. This Panel aims at analyzing career patterns (background; experience; party recruitment; alternative paths to power) of chief executives at different levels of the political system. It is open to different theoretical approaches, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. 4 Political representation & Leadership in Southern Europe: Crisis or Continuing Transformation following the Great Recession? (André Freire (Lisbon University Institute)) i. The consolidation of democracy and Europeanization of the European south led many scholars to assume that the region was stabilized and democracy was consolidated. However, the global economic crisis of 2007-08 brought forth questions about the distinctiveness of Southern Europe in the European context. This panel addresses the continuity and change in the patterns of political leadership (descriptive representation; levels of political professionalization) before and after the Great Recession. We welcome Papers that address the both the alleged collusion between major parties (the characteristics of their party elites and ideological orientations) and the increasing disconnect of the political system vis-à-vis society. We welcome papers that address this intersection of topics. 5 Political advisors and political staff (Matt Kerby (ANU)) This Panel addresses the subject of elite and leader advisors and support staff. The roles, actions and influence of these “invisible” and unelected actors can challenge the extent to which the outputs of democratically elected elites act as single and accountable agents. The panel welcomes theoretical and methodological papers that shed light on these often unobserved political actors with respect to their careers, roles and influence. 6 The role of leadership in EU politics and policy-making: The value of theoretical and methodological cross-fertilization. (Femke van Esch (Utrecht School of Governance)) How do formal and informal structures and practices of European politics affect the exertion of leadership – both individual and collective – at the national and supranational level? How do the behavior and characteristics of European leaders affect the process of European integration? How can we integrate the concept of leadership more systematically into the often institutionally-driven theories of European integration? By addressing these questions, this panel aims at an in-depth understanding of leadership in the EU system through theoretically rigorous and methodologically comparative research. 7 The role of localness in (legislative) politics (Audrey Vandeleene, (UCLouvain)) Political elites, party selectorates and voters, all value locally embedded politicians, even if for different reasons. Although the local origin of candidates or elected representatives may be critical to various dimensions of our political systems from candidate selection processes to campaign modes and voting behavior, this topic has received little academic attention. Our panel welcomes both empirical and theoretical contributions that address questions such as: under what institutional conditions do selectorates and voters favour local candidates? Is there a trade-off between the selection of locally embedded politicians and party discipline in Parliament? Are legislators with a record in local politics more parochial and interested in constituency service than in policy specialization? 8 Cabinet ministers, party preferences and government policy outputs (Patrick Dumont (University of Luxembourg)) Despite a long tradition of scholarly work on partisan effect on government policy, we do not yet know enough about the conditions through which cabinet parties are most likely to make a difference in policy-making. The present panel seeks contributions on portfolio allocation and the selection (and turnover) of individual ministers to uncover mechanisms that may account for variation in levels of partisan effects. It welcomes papers on the impact of prime ministers, finance ministers, coalition agreements, collective cabinet decision-making, personal expertise and experience on ministerial discretion, potential policy drift and actual policy outputs.