National and Regional Elites in Austrian Politics

How does one become a top politician in Austria? Which institutions have shaped political careers in Austria since the Second Republic? These are the central research questions pursued in the research project National and Local Elites in Austrian Politics. The project aims to comprehensively cover all political elite members at the level of federal states/provinces, as well as at the national level. Biographical data on members of parliament (Nationalrat, Bundesrat) are provided by the Austrian Parliament (Parlamentsdirektion). CVs of all members of state governments (Landeshauptmann-(stv.), Landesräte) are taken from pertinent biographical dictionaries or politicians databases managed by the diverse provincial archives. Biographical information is only unavailable for the province Carinthia. In total about 3,000 politicians will be analysed. Political careers will be explored by applying sequence analysis, a method that was originally invented in molecular biology for the decryption of genetic patterns. A social sequence is an ordered list of events/job positions that might differ in duration; it will allow the entire CV of any given politician to be captured. With the help of various matching methods, it is possible to cluster most similar sequences and thus devise typologies of typical career pathways. Bringing structure into big data also enables us to systematically explore change in political party careers or over time. A key characteristic of political careers in Austria are personal interlocks. Leading powerholders are, for example, members of various student associations (BSA, CV), trade unions or chambers (ÖGB, WKO). With the help of multiple correspondence analysis, another visualizing technique, it is possible to systematically explore these cross-linkages alongside other characteristics. The main aim of such an empirical approach is to understand whether interlacing between politics and social partners a key characteristic of Austrocorporatism has decreased over time. Finally, politicians will be also be interviewed to gain subjective perspectives on the identified career typologies. All data will be gathered and coded by a three-headed research team. With the support of a computer scientist, a relational database will be created that allows for very diverse and detailed inquiries. All biographical data will be coded with the help of specialised software (computer- assisted software). The research design allows comparisons with results from a parallel research project on Parliamentary Careers in Comparisons (http://parliamentarycareersincomparison.org), which studies Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. At the end of the project, a synthesis should facilitate understanding of how different political systems and party structures in Europe influence political careers.

The project revolved around these three central research questions/topics: Who is the political elite and how has it changed over time? In addition to socio-demographic information, all publicly available information on the political career of all members of the National Council between 1945 and 2019 was systematically collected. The careers of a total of 1,522 representatives were examined using sequence analysis. The computer-aided method originally comes from molecular biology and is primarily used to decode genetic patterns. A sequence represents the entire professional life of a politician as a series of different professional stages, each of which lasts over a certain period of time. By systematically comparing entire sequences, typologies of careers were formed. The focus of the project was on whether and how typical careers change. The main finding is clear: Even if the party system, among other things, has changed significantly, career trajectories have remained very stable. The tradition "Ochsentour" through the party remains the rule. Changes only become apparent at second glance. While federations ("Bünde") still shape careers within the ÖVP, the importance of the union for promotion to the National Council within the SPÖ has declined sharply. What is also striking is the decline in the number of workers in parliament and the rise of professional politicians. Do political careers differ between men and women? A partial explanation for the long-standing strong underrepresentation of women in parliament can be found in the fact that quiet frequent career progressions from local politics (e.g. mayoral office) to the National Council are often made by men but not by women. The existing "gender gap" at the lowest level is therefore reflected at the highest level of federalism. Which members of the National Council join which committees of the National Council? Committees are the most important bodies in parliament, in which small groups of MPs cover selected topics. The question of the logic according to which parties appoint committees has not yet been systematically examined for Austria. A full survey of all committee memberships between 2002 and 2019 shows that MPs remain on the same committee after they are first assigned to it ("seniority principle"). In addition to the great importance of expertise, it is also striking that women are appointed to committees with low prestige more often than men, regardless of their expertise.