Advancing to positions of power in parliament - does seniority matter?

This article examines whether or not legislatures in which strict adherence to seniority rule is uncommon nevertheless follow seniority conventions when positions of power in parliament are appointed. For this purpose, career data is gathered on each of the 4,961 legislators who served in the sixteen German state parliaments between 1990 and 2012. In order to understand the linkages that describe career patterns within parliaments, the study refers to delegation theory. Differentiating between the offices of president of parliament, committee chair and parliamentary group leader, logistic regression analyses provide evidence that being the incumbent means being in the absolute best starting position to become (re-)selected. This finding holds for every one of the offices distinguished. Other facets of seniority, such as being a long-standing parliamentarian, a long-standing party member or a former government official, show up as being relevant from time to time. Socio-demographic factors, however, play only a minor role.