ABSTRACT
The weight in a political field depends on specific resources that give strength and influence and that command access to media, political institutions, elected offices, and power positions. These resources can be labeled as political capital. Political capital is increasingly collective, but politicians also rely on their individual capital. Access to a position of power, such as the presidency of a Parliament or a ministerial chair, implies and reveals an inextricable mixture of individual and collective capital. In a representative democracy, collective, as well as individual, political capital depends on support from citizens, especially voters, but also on multiple judgments by politicians who are in charge of selecting candidates to parliamentary or governmental positions. We need to have a closer look on the factors at work in this selection process. What are the conditions of ascent within the political field? This research provides answers by comparing data about deputies to the French National Assembly elected in 2007—with a conservative and center-right majority—and 2012—with a socialist and center-left majority. The analysis relies on measures of chances of access to different political power positions within the parliament and government. Conditional probabilities of access to the selected positions are calculated based on two sets of variables relating to the socio-demographic characteristics of MPs and their political attributes. The results also provide some answers to the question of the degree of autonomy or heteronomy of political fields.
