The Way Out: Prime Ministers Leaving for the Business. A Comparative Analysis of Post-Executive Careers

This paper evaluates the varieties of former European prime ministers’ (PMs) ‘second career’ positions in the have taken business sector. Drawing on existing literature about the ‘ambition and opportunity approach’, we systematically examine the ‘second career’ of former European prime ministers in public and private companies. Using evidence from a novel data file of post-prime ministerial activities of 352 PMs in 26 countries over a period from 1945 to 2023, we find an increasing number of former PMs with ‘progressive ambition’ over time and across Europe. These PMs have migrated from politics to a variety of jobs in the business sector. Our results also indicate that younger PMs are more inclined to follow the ‘revolving door’ phenomenon than their older counterparts. We relate these trends to structural (i.e., crisis of party government and presidentialization) as well as personal (i.e., previous occupation and political experience) factors. Finally, we provide some normative ideas about the democratic problems that arise with the exit of former PMs to the business sector.