Non-political Factors of Multi-term Incumbency in the Governance Process of Staying in Power in Poland. Selected Cases of Mayors

Abstract

Acquiring and retaining of power is one of the main research areas in political science. Multi-term has been the subject of numerous analyses in the field of political science. The authors of this article have chosen to explore this area interdisciplinarily – in socio-economic terms. The aim of this article is to explore the potential links between multi-term incumbency and selected non-political factors that may be important in the process of managing mayors’ Staying in power. The main research question corresponds closely to the aim of the article, and the specific research questions are: are there relationships between mayoral multi-term incumbency and factors such as own income, investment expenditure and unemployment? Furthermore, in the process of managing staying in power, do governors use tools related to the so-called “political business cycle”? In this study, the comparative method and elements of the quantitative method – to analyse structure and dynamics – were applied; a comparison of the selected factors was made in 13 selected medium-sized cities in Poland, where the mayor has been in power continuously since at least 2002. The analyses carried out show that the cities’ own income co-varies with multi-term incumbency in the surveyed units, while investment expenditure and unemployment levels are unrelated to the mayors’ staying in power. In addition, the authorities were unlikely to use tools linked to the political business cycle.