Table Of ContentThe Contested Status of
Political Elites
Contemporary Western societies are witnessing ground-b reaking social, eco-
nomic, and political changes at an accelerating pace. These changes are chal-
lenging the way democracy works and the role that political elites play in this
system of government.
Using a theoretical and empirical approach, this volume argues that political
elites are urged to develop new strategies in order to achieve interest aggrega-
tion, to safeguard collective action, and to maintain elite autonomy and stability.
The adaptive capacities of political elites are assessed through case studies, com-
parative and longitudinal analyses of their social structure, their recruitment pat-
terns, and their attitudes. The book includes contributions from reputable
scholars in the field of elite research and specialists on individual political
systems across Europe and the US. It provides an analytical framework demon-
strating that political elites are inevitable and potentially able to respond suc-
cessfully to varying challenges.
The book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites,
democracy, comparative politics, political participation, and European Politics.
Lars Vogel is a Post-D octoral Researcher at the Department of Political Science,
Leipzig University, Germany.
Ronald Gebauer is Acting Professor of Methods of Empirical Social Research
at the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz, Germany.
Axel Salheiser is Research Fellow at KomRex—Center for Research on Right-
Wing Extremism, Civic Education and Social Integration at Friedrich Schiller
University Jena, Germany.
Routledge Research on Social and Political Elites
Series Editors: Keith Dowding
and
Patrick Dumont
Australian National University, Australia
Who are the elites that run the world? This series of books analyses who the
elites are, how they rise and fall, the networks in which they operate and the
effects they have on our lives.
Party Members and Activists
Edited by Emilie van Haute and Anika Gauja
Political Representation
Roles, Representatives and the Represented
Edited by Marc Bühlmann and Jan Fivaz
Ministerial Survival during Political and Cabinet Change
Foreign Affairs, Diplomacy and War
Alejandro Quiroz Flores
Government Formation and Minister Turnover in Presidential Cabinets
Comparative Analysis in the Americas
Edited by Marcelo Camerlo and Cecilia Martínez-Gallardo
The Selection of Politicians in Times of Crisis
Edited by Xavier Coller, Guillermo Cordero, and Antonio M. Jaime-C astillo
National Political Elites, European Integration and the Eurozone Crisis
Edited by Nicolò Conti, Borbála Göncz and José Real-D ato
Semi- presidentialism, Parliamentarism and Presidents
Presidential Politics in Central Europe
Miloš Brunclík and Michal Kubát
The Contested Status of Political Elites
At the Crossroads
Edited by Lars Vogel, Ronald Gebauer and Axel Salheiser
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-on-Social-and-Political-Elites/book-series/RRSPE
The Contested Status of
Political Elites
At the Crossroads
Edited by Lars Vogel, Ronald Gebauer
and Axel Salheiser
First published 2019
by Routledge
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© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Lars Vogel, Ronald Gebauer and
Axel Salheiser; individual chapters, the contributors
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ISBN: 978-0-415-79215-8 (hbk)
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Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
List of contributors x
Acknowledgments xii
1 Contested status: contemporary challenges to political elites
and elite responses 1
LARS VOGEL, RONALD GEBAUER, AND AXEL SALhEISER
PART I
Elite autonomy and security in modern democracies 23
2 Elite autonomy and post-i ndustrial problems of employment 25
JOhN hIGLEY
3 On the (lack of ) autonomy of political elites as
representatives 33
JEAN- PASCAL DALOZ
4 Economic elites – political elites: scenes from a symbiosis 44
hEINRICh BEST
5 European citizens and elites in times of economic crisis and
citizen unrest 58
URSULA hOFFMANN- LANGE AND MINDAUGAS KUKLYS
vi Contents
PART II
(Changing) elite structure 85
6 Degradable elites? Modes and factors of parliamentary
turnover in Europe in the early twenty- first century 87
LUCA VERZIChELLI
7 When political elites select political elites: insights into the
accumulation of autonomous political capital 108
DANIEL GAXIE
8 Careers of long- standing legislators and the making of the
parliamentary elite: evidence from 25 Baltic parliaments 124
MINDAUGAS KUKLYS
9 Recruitment of technocrats in Romanian cabinets 140
Laurenţiu Ştefan
10 Farewell to the party elites? Politically inexperienced
ministers in Central and Eastern European cabinets 160
ELENA SEMENOVA
PART III
(Changing) elite attitudes and behavior 183
11 Irresponsible elites in opposition and government:
the Hungarian case 185
GABRIELLA ILONSZKI AND GYöRGY LENGYEL
12 Theorists of their own practice: democracy as seen by
Weimar politicians 203
JENS BORChERT
13 Immigration and its consequences for European integration:
a multi- level analysis of European national representatives’
perceptions 226
RONALD GEBAUER AND LARS VOGEL
Index 242
Figures
6.1 Parliamentary turnover in 17 countries (1979–2015) 94
9.1 Percentage of technocratic appointments in Romanian
governments 146
9.2 Length of tenure for all ministers and experts per each cabinet
(months) 155
13.1 estimated country-s pecific relationships of MPs’ left-r ight
self- placement and their threat perceptions of immigration 235
Tables
1.1 Typology of elites with autonomy and security as the two
dimensions of elite status 5
3.1 An overview of major normative approaches of political
representation 34
5.1 Elections, electoral volatility, and changes in government in
31 European democracies 2009–2016 65
5.2 Electoral volatility in 19 Western European democracies
1990 to July 2016 66
5.3 Kornhauser’s model of mass society 75
5.4 Newcomers in the German Bundestag 78
6.1 Possible determinants of legislative turnover 89
6.2 Legislative turnover in europe: descriptive figures 93
6.3 Proposed hypotheses, variable and measurements 96
6.4 Factors affecting turnover in 164 elections in 17 countries
(1979–2015) 98
6.5 Parliamentary turnover in the largest parliamentary group:
recent cases of “critical elections” in Europe 100
7.1 Political ascent and social background (members of the
Socialist, Green, and Left Liberal majority elected in 2012) 113
7.2 Political ascent and social background (members of the
2007–2012 Conservative and Center-R ight majority) 116
7.3 Political attributes and political ascent (members of the
Socialist, Green, and Left Liberal majority elected in 2012) 119
7.4 Political ascent and social background (members of the
2007–2012 Conservative and Center-R ight majority) 120
8.1 Percentage of MPs serving at least three legislative terms
after 1990 125
8.2 Political party and party family switching among legislators
(average) 133
8.3 heads of the Baltic parliaments from 1990 onwards 135
9.1 Number of times technocrats served in the cabinet 145
9.2 Appointments of expert and non-p artisan ministers in
Romanian cabinets 147
Tables ix
9.3 Ministerial portfolios held by expert and non-p artisan
ministers 153
9.4 Ministerial tenures 153
9.5 Average length of ministerial tenures 155
9.6 Ministerial status 156
9.7 Experience as deputy ministers 156
9.8 Ministers with postgraduate degrees 157
9.9 Ministers with PhDs 157
9.10 Technocratic ministers successfully running for the national
and European parliament 158
10.1 Institutional frameworks of the CEE countries 165
10.2 Political background of all first-t ime ministers in democratic
cabinets, 1991/1992/1993–2009 167
10.3 Selected socio-d emographic characteristics of first-t ime
OUTSIDER ministers, 1991/1992/1993–2009 172
10.4 First- time OUTSIDER ministers in different types of
portfolios, 1991/1992/1993–2009 (percent) 175
11.1 regime type, elite configuration, leadership traits, and
frames of irresponsibility 190
11.2 Irresponsibility of governing and oppositional elites before
and after 2010 elections 196
13.1 Threat perception of immigration from non-E U countries 231
13.2 Proposed hypotheses, variables, and measurements 232
13.3 Multi- level models for threat perceptions of immigration
from non- EU countries 236
