Who Runs for Higher Office? Electoral Institutions and Level‐Hopping Attempts in Germany's State Legislatures
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6300941 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leonardo Carella (0000-0002-2202-6493, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 481-549 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Legislative Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0362-9805 • E-ISSN: 1939-9162 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/lsq.12438 |
| OpenAlex | W4388991410 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 75 |
Do electoral institutions matter for subnational legislators’ career choices in a multi‐level polity? The paper considers this question by analyzing candidacies of sitting German State MPs for the Federal parliament (“level‐hopping attempts”), leveraging cross‐ and within‐legislature variation in electoral rules (due to the widespread adoption of mixed‐member systems in Germany's subnational parliaments). State MPs elected via list PR can be expected to be more likely to attempt level‐hopping than those elected in the single‐member districts (SMD) tier, as the former face lower re‐election rates and the latter are more directly accountable to their constituency's voters. Empirical evidence from a novel dataset of over 8000 State legislators spanning 10 Federal elections (1987–2021) confirms this hypothesis. It is also shown that the difference in behavior across tiers is more marked when State MPs run for insecure Federal candidacies than when they are offered secure candidacies. The findings suggest that subnational electoral institutions play a role in enabling or constraining legislators' progressive ambition. Moreover, they highlight a previously overlooked dimension of the “mandate divide” between MPs belonging to different electoral tiers of mixed‐member systems
Economics · German · Legislature · Mandate · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · State (computer science · Turnout · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Political Systems and Governance · Public Administration
Austria
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Electoral Systems and Political Context
The Politics of Parliamentary Debate
Ambition, Federalism, and Legislative Politics in Brazil
Federalism and Regionalism in Western Europe
Multi-Level Party Politics in Western Europe
Mixed-Member Electoral Systems
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The Regionalization of Political Careers in Spain and the UK
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Political professionalization, subnational style
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(Re-)Assessing Career Patterns in Multi-Level Systems
Introduction
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German Political Careers
The Constituency Roles of MPs at the Federal and Länder Levels in Germany
The Canadian Political Career Structure
Political careers in multi-level systems
Career Patterns in Multilevel States
Individualised Constituency Campaigns in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems
Electoral rules and legislative turnover
Measuring re-election prospects across electoral systems
Who governs? The disputed effects of regionalism on legislative career orientation in multilevel systems
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Individual Ambition and Institutional Opportunity
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |