Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 1-2011 Recruitment to Leadership Positions in the German Bundestag, 1994-2006 Melanie Kintz Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Comparative Politics Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, and the Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons Recommended Citation Kintz, Melanie, "Recruitment to Leadership Positions in the German Bundestag, 1994-2006" (2011). Dissertations. 428. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/428 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RECRUITMENT TO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG, 1994-2006 by Melanie Kintz A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science Advisor: Emily Hauptmann, Ph.D. Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan December 2011 RECRUITMENT TO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG, 1994-2006 Melanie Kintz, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2011 This dissertation looks at the recruitment patterns to leadership positions in the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2006 with the objective of enhancing understanding of legislative careers and representation theory. Most research on political careers thus far has focused on who is elected to parliament, rather than on which legislators attain leadership positions. However, leadership positions within the parliament often come with special privileges and can serve as stepping stones to higher positions on the executive level. Based on a data set I compiled of all members who served in the Bundestag from 1994 to 2006, this dissertation looks at the socio-demographic profiles and political career patterns of German legislators and identifies the factors which are important in the leadership selection process. Further, the dissertation also looks at how two disadvantaged groups in German society, women and East Germans, fare in the selection process. The dissertation finds that generally intra-parliamentary recruitment differs from recruitment to parliament. Additionally, it finds that different factors are positively correlated with leadership selection patterns at different times and across different parliamentary party groups. Lastly, it shows that women fare comparatively better in the selection process to leadership positions than East Germans, though the political career profiles of both groups are in many cases very similar. UMI Number: 3492974 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT Dissertation Publishing UMI 3492974 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ©2011 MelanieKintz ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The work on this project took me six years and would have not been possible without the help of several people for whose support I am very grateful and wish to acknowledge in this section. First, I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee (Dr. Emily Hauptmann, Dr. Gunther Hega and Dr. Eli Rubin from Western Michigan University, as well as Dr. Jennifer A. Yoder from Colby College) for all the help and support they provided during the years of dissertation writing. I would further like to thank the faculty members of the Political Science Department at Western Michigan University for all the help they provided academically, logistically and financially through the years. Second, I would like to thank the four interview partners from the Green Party, the Left Party and the CDU/CSU Fraktion of the German Bundestag who set time aside from their busy schedules in an election year to talk to me about the matters concerning my research. Third, I would like to thank all those scholars whose input into my research over the years has certainly helped improve this project. I would specifically like to thank Louise Davidson-Schmich, Joyce Mushaben, Michael Edinger and the colleagues from the SFB 580 in Jena; Susanne and Gert Pickel; Detlef Jahn and Michael North from the University of Greifswald; and Klaus Stolz from the University of Technology Chemnitz. Last, I would like to thank my friends and family for their support and continuous cheering me on, so I could finish this dissertation. Your help has been ii Acknowledgements - continued invaluable to me. I wish my beloved grandfather, Max Apel, would have been able to see me finish my degree. On behalf of those mentioned and not mentioned who supported me through the dissertation stage, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to him. Melanie Kintz in TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 Significance of the study 4 Structure of the dissertation 8 II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 10 Theories of legislative recruitment 11 Theories of representation 17 Women and East Germans as special groups in German society.... 20 Women in (German) politics 21 Theories on women's representation in politics 27 East German distinctiveness 33 East Germans in political elite positions 42 111. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 55 Quantitative analysis 55 Socio-demographic characteristics 63 Political experience 70 Qualitative data 78 iv Table of Contents - continued CHAPTER IV. GERMAN PARLIAMENTARIANS AND THEIR CAREERS 85 Size of parliament and the share of Women and East Germans represented 85 Demographic characteristics 90 Age 91 Education 95 Professional structure 101 Characteristics of political careers 107 Years of party membership 107 Time needed from party entry to Bundestag entry 113 Membership in state parliaments 118 Time spent in state legislatures 123 Members with previous leadership experience in state legislatures 128 National and state party leadership 132 Time spent in the Bundestag 139 Previous leadership positions 148 Summary 153 V. RECRUITMENT TO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG 155 Change overtime 163 Summary 175 VI. RECRUITMENT TO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS - THE PARTY PERSPECTIVE 178 v Table of Contents - continued CHAPTER Green Party 179 Left Party/PDS 187 TheFDP 195 Recruitment patterns in small party parliamentary groups - a summary and comparison 200 TheSPD 206 The CDU/CSU 212 Recruitment patterns in large party parliamentary groups - a summary and comparison 218 VII. WOMEN AND EAST GERMANS IN THE LEADERSHIP SELECTION PROCESS 222 Distribution of leadership positions to women 223 Distribution of leadership positions to East Germans 229 VIM. CONCLUSION 241 Relevance for literature on legislative recruitment and organization 241 Implications for future research 247 Relevance for literature on representation 250 Implications for further research 255 APPENDICES A. Interview protocol - sample questions 259 B. HSIRB letter 263 BIBLIOGRAPHY 264 VI LIST OF TABLES 1: Overview over the hypotheses tested in this dissertation 60 2: Number of women in the Bundestag 87 3: Number of East Germans in the Bundestag 88 4: Age of German parliamentarians 92 5: Age of German parliamentarians, comparison East German vs. West German parliamentarians 94 6: Educational structure (in percent) 97 7: Educational structure, comparison East German and West German parliamentarians (in percent) 99 8: Occupational structure (in percent) 102 9: Occupational structure, comparison between East Germans and West German parliamentarians (in percent) 105 10: Years of party membership 108 11: Years of party membership, comparison between East German and West German parliamentarians 111 12: Time needed from party entry to Bundestag entry 114 13: Time needed from party entry to Bundestag entry, comparison between East German and West German MPs 116 14: Members with experience in state legislatures 119 15: Members with experience in state legislatures, comparison between East German and West German MPs 121 16: Time spent in the state parliament 124 vii List of Tables - continued 17 Years spent in the state parliament, comparison between East German and West German MPs 125 18 Share of members having held leadership positions in the state parliament (out of those who served the state parliament) 127 19 Share of members having held leadership positions in the state parliament, comparison between East German and West German MPs (out of those who served the state parliament) 129 20 Members with experience in the national party leadership 131 21 Members with experience in national party leadership, comparison between East German and West German MPs 134 22 Members with experience in the state party leadership 138 23 Members with experience in state party leadership, comparison between East German and West German MPs 138 24 Time spent in Bundestag 140 25 Number of people who are newly elected to the Bundestag (share in percent in parentheses) 143 26 Time spent in Bundestag in years, comparison between East German and West German