Suchergebnisse

The article focuses on representatives of the regional (and most recently established) level of government in the Czech Republic. It describes the context behind the emergence of regional governments & how they differ from the local & national political levels. It notes the close personnel connection between local & regional political elites. Experience gained in local politics helps elites to succeed at the regional level. The presence of local politicians in regional government varies with the level of residential fragmentation & the degree of urbanization in the given region. Unlike local politics, which is consistently comprised of a significant proportion of independents, regional representatives are almost exclusively members of political parties & movements. This situation on the one hand serves to increase the politicization of local politics & on the other leads to greater competition within political parties, whose programs & national leadership regional politicians wish to influence.

This study is based on a comparative analysis of political elites' circulation in six countries -- Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland, the Netherlands & Great Britain during the 1993-2003 period. For the purposes of the comparison, in each case study the members of parliament or the lower chamber are chosen as a representative sample of the political elites. The comparative analysis assesses the correctness of the following hypothesis: The type of elites & their circulation is interrelated with the type of political system. The study is methodologically based on the modern theory of elites & its hypothesis that every type of political system is tightly connected with the type of political elites that exist within it, & that every type of political elites can be distinguished by a specific type of circulation. Thus, by measuring the circulation of political elites we can infer the type of political elites & even the type of political regime. This study assesses the circulation of parliamentary representatives in the six selected countries during the 1993-2003 period & finds out that in the Central European states the figures are clearly distinctive from the respective figures in the Western European states, thus confirming the original hypothesis. Tables, Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.