The Higher the Better? A Comparative Analysis of Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Human Capital of German Federal Government Members

Scharfenkamp Katrin, Dilger Alexander,


Zusammenfassung
Are the highest politicians better qualified than their peers? In this article, we analyze differences between chancellors, vice chancellors, and ministers of the inner or residual cabinets of the German federal governments between 1949 and 2009 with respect to their social backgrounds and educational, economic, as well as political human capital. Different statistical methods reveal no clear primacy of chancellors or vice chancellors over other members of government. Interestingly, inner cabinets have higher qualifications than residual cabinets, as well as partly chancellors and vice chancellors.

Schlüsselwörter
German federal government; human capital; leaders; politicians; sociodemographic characteristics



Publikationstyp
Forschungsartikel (Zeitschrift)

Begutachtet
Ja

Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht

Jahr
2014

Fachzeitschrift
German Politics and Society

Band
32

Ausgabe
4

Erste Seite
21

Letzte Seite
38

Sprache
Englisch

ISSN
1045-0300

DOI

Gesamter Text