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Knowledge Is Power: The Staffing Advantage of Parliamentary and Ministerial Offices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2022

Pieter Moens Open the ORCID record for Pieter Moens [Opens in a new window]
Pieter Moens*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
*
Corresponding author. Email: pmoens.moens@ugent.be
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Abstract

This article analyses the distribution of staff resources between party offices. While earlier studies have compared central and parliamentary offices, this study also includes ministerial offices. To capture fully the differences in staffing, I examine both the quantity (staff size) and quality (education, experience, tasks) of their staffs. The empirical section is based on a cross-sectional analysis of original survey data collected among political staffers in Belgium and the Netherlands (N = 1,009). While the Belgian cabinet system includes extensive ministerial offices, ministerial staff is limited in the Dutch non-cabinet system. The results show how this institutional difference shapes parties' internal distribution of resources. While the party in parliament does not have a clear staffing advantage over the party in central office in Belgium, they are both eclipsed by the large, highly qualified party in the executive. In the Netherlands, the impact of ministerial offices is negligible and the staff of the party in parliament is both larger and more qualified than the staff of the party in central office.

Keywords

political staffpolitical professionalizationcartelizationsurvey research
Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , October 2023 , pp. 765 - 788
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Government and Opposition Limited

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