The parliamentary consequences of political capital: The case of the Quebec National Assembly
We attempt to situate political capital in the Quebec context by measuring its parliamentary consequences among elected members of the National Assembly who have served since 2003. To measure the parliamentary consequences of political capital, we mainly study the impact of two factors—previous political experience of elected officials at other levels of government, and family ties—on access to various important parliamentary positions. Two sets of regression models are presented. The first set analyzes the accession to parliamentary office of MPs throughout their legislative career, while the second set replicates the variables of the first set, applying them only to parliamentary recruits. We conclude that political capital can only play a role in an individual’s legislative career in certain very specific contexts. Family ties have no impact on access to legislative positions, while federal or provincial political experience has a slight positive effect when considering the entire career of elected officials. Local political experience (municipal or school) has significant negative effects on the chances of accessing different parliamentary positions.