The Mayors’ political career: between local and national ambition

Abstract

Understanding career trajectories in multilevel systems sheds light on the territorial dynamics taking place between various levels of government. Our study shows that the local political arena, especially the mayoral position, has evolved over the last decade. In comparison to the 2003–2004 survey findings discussed by Kjær (2006), today’s mayors are more experienced politicians with longer record of service in the council, although more than one-third of the mayors bypass this classical career ladder. In terms of mayor’s seniority, differences observed are mostly explained within—not across—countries. Being an older male with higher education increases the probability of a longer service in mayoral office. Municipality size also does play a role on the conduct of a mayor’s career. Political leaders of small municipalities almost never take up office at other tiers of government—although many of them wish to run for a higher political position—they hold their mayoral mandate for a relatively long period of time. The strongest trend towards multi-term mayoralty may be noticed in Poland and France, well-known for its local political leadership stability due to the cumul des mandats. Another explanatory factor of seniority is the introduction of direct election of mayors in several countries (e.g. Italy and Poland) as well as the increase in mayors’ political visibility thanks to crawling territorial amalgamation reforms (Germany, Greece, Norway, Switzerland). Our results seem to confirm Guérin and Kerrouche’s (2008) statement on the evolution from voluntary amateur representatives to ‘local professionals’. Regarding mayors’ ambition, a majority of them declare that they plan to run again for their office. [...]