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Jamie Pow
ing to various occupations, but political parties themselves can voluntarily show initiative. Indeed, just as David Cameron sought to broaden the
Conservatives’ candidates beyond those with professional experience in
politics, there are signs that Labour is seeking to recruit more candidates from a working-class occupational background (Savage 2012). In
an era when parties struggle to prove their legitimacy (Mair 2008: 212),
parties can enhance their legitimacy through diversifying occupational
representation, perhaps requiring a democratization of selection methods
(see Shlomit and Rahat 2007). Crucially, however, the higher success
rates of those with existing experience in politics means that parties must
lend particular support to candidates without such backgrounds.
Secondly, it is at the level of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet at which
the career politician is both most visible to the public and most represented in number. All parties should thus be attentive to rebalancing the
“two-track career path” identified by Cowley (2012: 36). The proportion
of career politicians is particularly damaging for the Labour Party, which
has based criticism of the current Cabinet as ‘out-of-touch’ on grounds
of the wealthy backgrounds of many ministers (Labour Party 2012). If
it wants to distinguish itself as a more diverse alternative, its argument
would be more compelling if its own top team was not skewed so heavily
in occupational terms to career politicians.
This article also has implications for future research. This study only examined the case of the United Kingdom, but in order to gain a richer context of the rise of the career politician and its consequences, comparisons
with other democracies would be welcome. At present, such a study faces serious obstacles. Whilst the Comparative Candidates Survey (CCS)
attempts to build profiles of candidates across multiple democracies, the
UK is not presently included, and candidates are not distinguished by
party or occupational background. In addition, individual-level survey
data of voters themselves would help parties to understand levels of de-