Measuring civil service politicization with career data: Backstage and frontstage political experience of top civil servants in the German ministerial administration

Abstract

Based on an understanding of politicization as an increase in the relevance of political criteria in the selection and deselection of civil servants, this article proposes an innovative approach to measure civil service politicization with individual-level career data. For this purpose, two core types of political experience in civil servants' careers are distinguished: frontstage political experience as elected politician and backstage political experience in non-elected offices close to politics. For each core type, two subtypes are defined. The empirical measurement of the four different types of political experience is illustrated by the analysis of an original dataset of more than 2100 top civil service appointments in Germany in the time period 1949–2017. Findings reveal a significant increase in backstage political experience. The approach developed for this article can be applied to explore various facets of politicization not only in longitudinal perspective but also in comparative studies.