Replication Data for: Bureaucratic Turnover Under New Governments: The moderating effect of organizational buffering

Politically motivated personnel turnover affects public bureaucracy legitimacy and performance. This paper explores how variability in organizational buffering between ministers and bureaucrats moderates the effect of government transitions on bureaucratic turnover. Event-history analysis of the careers of 948 Norwegian senior bureaucrats (1884-2024) reveals that senior bureaucrats with bureaucratic employment layers buffering them from ministers face no increased turnover risk after a change of government. In contrast, bureaucrats at the top of the administrative hierarchy are at increased risk of turnover following government transitions. However, when organizational buffering takes the form of political appointees between the highest rank of senior bureaucrats and the minister, the effect reverses. In Norway, this moderating effect stems from implementing a new, functionally politicized position atop the ministerial hierarchy. The research contributes to understanding when merit recruitment institutions are deviated from by new governments, showing that hierarchy and functional politicization create political dynamics in bureaucratic careers.