Rodríguez-Teruel, Juan (2011) Ministerial and parliamentary elites in multilevel Spain 1977-2009. Comparative sociology, 10 (6). pp. 887-907. ISSN 1569-1322
Abstract
In decentralized European parliamentary democracies future governing elites often acquire political experience and attain top positions by passing through sub-national political institutions. In doing so, elites circumvent and reduce the importance of national parliaments. Previous research has advanced several explanations for this pattern: Europe's tradition of bureaucratic government; parties with open methods for selecting parliamentary candidates; the "presidentialization" and Europeanization of national political systems. Since its transition to democracy in 1977, Spain has had an exceptionally small proportion of former MPs in its national cabinets. I employ data for Spanish ministers between 1977-2009 demonstrating the passage of a large proportion of cabinet ministers through local and regional government levels rather than the national parliament, the Cortes Generales. I show that multilevel rather than parliamentary political careers characterize ministerial elite recruitment, and I discuss the consequences for Spain's parliamentary democracy
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.brill.nl/comparative-sociology |
| Additional Information: | © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Europeanization, ministerial elites, parliamentary elites, political decentralization, presidentialization |
| Library of Congress subject classification: | J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) |
| Sets: | Departments > Government |
| Rights: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/rights/LSERO.htm |
| URL: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/41770/ |
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