Class origin, elite circulation, and the currency of political capital

Abstract This study investigates how class origin shapes the post.political career trajectories of Norwegian political elites. Building on theories of horizontal elite circulation and the notion of political capital, I ask whether politicians from privileged backgrounds are better able to convert the social and symbolic resources accumulated in office into top.level positions in other sectors. Using anonymous register data that covers the entire Norwegian population, I identify former ministers, state secretaries and members of parliament who left top.level politics between 2003 and 2017. Sequence analysis and hierarchical clustering reveals six prototypical career pathways. Regression models show that upper.class origins significantly increase the probability of entering the private sector or organized.interest elite, while working.class politicians are over.represented among those who exit political elite positions for a few years, only to return again. Educational attainment and occupational experience does not account for this pattern, suggesting that class.based habitus and credibility as holders of political capital operate independently of formal qualifications. Moreover, the results are interpreted as differences in the sectoral demand for political capital: it is highly valued in the private and organized interest sectors but less so in the public bureaucracy. The findings demonstrate that elite circulation is stratified by class: upper-class origins facilitate the conversion of political capital into stable, high.status careers, whereas political elites with working-class social origins tend to remain within the precarious realm of elected office. This underscores the enduring role of class origin in reproducing power hierarchies even within a comparatively egalitarian context such as Norway.