You take the high road
and I‘ll take the low
road
Andreas Jungherr
Phd Student - Bamberg, University
andreas.jungherr@gmail.com

Andreas Jungherr (2009) ‘You Take the
High Road and I’ll Take the Low Road: 4
Ways how Political Leaders find into
Politics’
Paper presented at the 5th ECPR General
Conference: European Consortium for
Political Research, Potsdam, Germany on
10 September 2009.

In late 2007 I
conducted a study into
the concept of political
leadership as seen by
young politicians

Search for crucible
experiences in their
autobiographical
narratives

Instead I found patterns
in their recollections of
their recruitment into
political parties

Recruitment through a
friend or family
member

Recruitment through a
local event or local
issue

Recruitment through a
global event or issue

The Element of Chance

Recruitment through a
friend or family
member

Total of 9 out of 19

Recruitment through
friends: Based on
shared activities

Recruitment through
family: Party politics is
seen as natural
evolution

Recruitment through a
local event or local
issue

Total of 6 out of 19

Recruitment through a
global event or issue

Total of 4 out of 19

The Element of Chance

Please bear in mind:

The study is qualitative
and based on a very
small sample

The study was done
looking for something
completely different

The study was done by
someone with a
different research
background and area of
expertiece

So procede with
caution

A. Jungherr (2009) ‘You Take the High
Road and I’ll Take the Low Road: 4 Ways
how Political Leaders find into Politics’,
Paper presented at the 5th ECPR General
Conference: European Consortium for
Political Research, Potsdam, Germany on
10 - 12 September 2009.