What makes a good minister of a political party? Impact of party- and field-related experience on party pledge fulfilment

Abstract

The article examines the effect of the personal characteristics of ministers on their party and coalition partners' pledge fulfilment. Partisanship and additional party-related experience is expected to help party pledge fulfilment. Previous field-related experience should additionally open up the space for alternative principals. However, in combination of both variables, the partisan motivation shall be the leading mechanism for the behaviour of the minister – and the field-related experience can help partisan ministers to follow party mandate better. The joint dataset of objectively testable pledges in the Czech Republic (2007–2015) supplemented by the information of government ministers is used for the test of hypotheses. The article shows that not only holding the portfolio but also the particular features of ministers, especially those related to the party-related experience, influence their ability to fulfil party promised policy.

Closed shutters or revolving doors? Elite career track similarity and elite sector transfers in Denmark

“…Most of these studies focus on single elite groups -most often on members of parliament or ministers -and their career trajectories either after leaving their previous elite position (e.g., Rasmussen et al 2021) or prior to attaining their position (e.g., Blondel & Thiébault 1991;De Almeida & Pinto 2009). This is crucial information as prospects of post-electoral elite positions may influence the behaviour of elected officials when they hold office, the recruitment of a former politician may benefit the organizations or firms hiring (Blanes i Vidal et al, 2012;Egerod, 2022;Shepherd & You, 2020) and prior experience may influence performance in elite positions (Vodová, 2021). We aim to contribute to this perspective by investigating career similarities and transfers across different political elite groups.…”