In the US we have a far bigger population and geographic area than the European countries. I know it is somewhat hard, but not impossible, to get into state politics and interact with state leaders like senators and governors. Hell Ted Bundy worked with the governor of his state merely because he wanted to. It seems to me that if you want to work with or partake in your state government (ie run for state legislature for example) it is feasable for a good deal of the population to do it. There was even talk that Ted Bundy would eventually become governor of Washington and all he needed was the ambition to make an effort to break into state politics. Any reference to Ted Bundy that I can pull out of my ass will be used for the purposes of this thread. However working with the president is alot harder in the US and running for federal government is not something the average civilian can effectively pull off, while state office is a bit more feasable. How does it work in Europe with regards to interacting with powerful polticians and breaking into politics? Is breaking into politics easier there due to the smaller geography and population size, or does it really not matter? Is it comparable to trying to play a role in state politics in the US? I’m not sure if there is even a way to guage it. France for example has almost 1000 seats in their national assembly & senate, but only about 1/5 the population of the US. A country like Israel has 120 seats and only 6 million people.
Is it easier to break into politics in a smaller country like the ones in Europe or Israel or New Zealand than it is in america?
In Europe it’s easier to get involved with third parties and not have people mock you for “throwing away your vote”. Because seats will be apportioned proportionally instead of winner take all.
Unless you live in Britain, where “winner takes it all” is a pretty good description of the system.
In my (limited) experience, British politics is quite easy to break into at a purely local level- one can become an activist in the local party of your choice, work hard and stand as a local councillor, representing your borough (er- perhaps analagous to a county?) in relatively short time. From there you can certainly try and work your way up to stand as an MP for various seats and eventually gain one, but I don’t know whether this is greatly different from the US in system in terms of difficulty of access.
I don’t think it’s much harder here if you’ve got the drive. A friend started immediately after college by volunteering in a local state Senate campaign. He so impressed the candidate that he was offered a job in the Senator’s office, which he took. He then got recommended for a job with the US Representative from the same district and worked in his office in DC for three years. Now he’s a low-level employee at the Governor’s office and is planning to run for the state legislature himself in a couple years.
Thats the thing though. Is breaking into state politics in the US about the same level of difficulty as breaking into national politics in European countries like France, the UK or Germany? Ted Bundy managed to get reasonably far in state politics, if he can do it alot of people can.
Breaking into state politics is realistic here in the US, but federal politics seems alot harder due to geography and the population size.
I don’t think there’s any real comparison to state politics in the UK. Possibly in somewhere like Germany, but I don’t know enough to comment on that. Comparing simple numbers of representatives isn’t necessarily helpful, because it really depends on what they actually do, which obviously varies a huge amount from country to country.
Local politics in the UK is easy to get into, at the lower levels at least. However, it’s not necessarily a career choice - only the higher positions are actually full-time posts. Some major politicians have come from this route, but others establish careers for themselves (Blair was a lawyer, John Major worked in finance) and then get into formal political activities at a higher level.
The only objective data that I can contribute on Germany is the number of seats in legislatures:
Federal parliament: 614 seats (at present) - 1 seat per 134,000 people
State parliaments: 1,833 seats (sum of all 16 states) - 1 seat per 45,000 people
One method if you want to get into a legislature would be to get in at the ground floor of a small ‘protest’ party that capitalizes on a specific voter discontent. The first time such a party gets into a (state) parliament you’ll often see people with a few months of political activity suddently elected to state parliament. Most of these parties don’t into parliament the second time (typically they self-destruct), sometimes they stay (as the Greens did) but then usually change to the more usual career path, and the founder generation gradually gets put out to pasture. The disadvantage of this path into a legislature is that you’ll be marginalized, as a member of the opposition and a political virgin, probably won’t leave any mark on state politics, and very probably will be out after one term.
The more usual career path would be to put in a lot of work as a party activist/official and gradually establish your credentials/your soundness in various party and public offices.
The career path of a ficticious Bundestag member might be e.g.
Become party member
Activism in local party youth organization
Member of the local party committee
Standing for election (at a hopeless list position, by way of paying your dues) for municipial council
President of local party youth organization committee
President of local party committee, delegate to state party conference
Standing for election (successfully) for district council
Member of state party youth organization commitee
Standing for election (at a hopeless list position and in a hopeless district, by way of paying your dues) for state legislature
Delegate to federal party conference
Standing for election (unsuccessfully, by way of paying your dues) as mayor.
Member of committee of state party suborganization representing a certain group (e.g. women, the self-employed, jurists). Getting known on the federal party level as a specialist on certain issues.
Member of state party committee
Standing for election (at a better list position but still unsuccessfully) for the federal legislature (Bundestag)
Senior member of state party committee
Member of party ad-hoc committee to redraft party program
Standing for election (successfully) for federal legislature.
The only prerequisites for such a career path would be a lot of dedication and drive, and a certain minimum level of education to establish your merit at the lower stages.