Careerists Versus Coal-Miners: Welfare Reforms and the Substantive Representation of Social Groups in the British Labour Party

Abstract

Many parties have seen declines in working-class legislators and increases in professional career politicians. I argue that career politicians are more likely to adopt policies for strategic political reasons, whereas working-class politicians are more likely to represent the interests of working-class voters. Changes in the representation of these occupa-

Does Class-Based Campaigning Work? How Working Class Appeals Attract and Polarize Voters

“…First, the working class has historically had a special role in politics in many countries as seen in the frequent invocation of this group in party and candidate appeals (Evans & Tilley, 2017;Lipset & Rokkan, 1967;Przeworski & Sprague, 1986;Rhodes & Johnson, 2017). It may be that upper middle class individuals simply see appeals to the working class as part of the background of politics even if they discount their actual relevance due to the upper-class favoritism in policymaking (O'Grady, 2019;Schlozman et al, 2017). Second, it is possible that members of the working class have a stronger sense of linked fate due to a lack of resources and power relative to other class groups.…”

Essential Work Is Gender Segregated: This Shapes the Gendered Representation of Essential Workers in Political Office

“…The presence of women legislators from pink‐collar jobs like health‐care support and social services increases funding for healthcare and social services (Barnes, Beall, and Holman, 2020). Legislators pursue policies that help those with whom they share occupational or class backgrounds (O'Grady, 2019). Veterans in Congress advocate on behalf of veteran constituents (Lowande, Ritchie, and Lauterbach, 2019).…”

What is a career politician? Theories, concepts, and measures

“…Everyone recognizes early-entry, "ultra" career politicians as members of the conceptual family (Kam, 2006;Goplerud, 2015;Henn, 2018;Heuwieser, 2018;O'Grady, 2019), but it is not clear they have long-term commitments to their parliamentary careers (Dimension 1). If they do not rise quickly or, having risen, doubt their opportunities for further preferment, they may leave politics to pursue careers in other fields (Mattozzi and Merlo, 2008).…”

“…Note that this approach gives each of the four dimensions an equal impact on our final composite index scores. Some might argue that equal weights are an inappropriate modeling choice, because recent studies have tended to place a greater emphasis on career politicians' occupational backgrounds and life experiences over their commitment and ambition (Henn, 2018;Heuwieser, 2018;O'Grady, 2019). It is difficult, however, to determine exactly how to weight the dimensions.…”

“…Recent quantitative investigations use occupational background and age at entry as indicators of "career politician" (Kam, 2006;Goplerud, 2015;Henn, 2018;Heuwieser, 2018;O'Grady, 2019) despite some uncertainty about their validity (Heuwieser, 2018, pp. 316;320-321).…”