Path Dependency: Do Councillor Recruitment and Career Development Matter?

Abstract

This article addresses the question of matter in discussing the effect of recruitment and career development on the importance councillors attach to various tasks associated with their office. It starts from the assumption that professionalization would lead to giving inward-looking tasks more importance to the detriment of their outward counterparts. The analysis shows the question of matter is much more complex in reality in terms of co-variation and causation and is contingent upon (supra-)local structures of opportunities. Overall, (existing) explanations are rather weak. Early stages in the recruitment process seem to matter most and have a negative effect on outward-looking tasks. Whereas specific patterns of path dependency in terms of recruitment and career development thus do appear, the road taken in public office is long and winding and does not always straightforwardly reflect the common legacy of shared past experiences in the way towards it.