Dual Elite Recruitment Logic and Political Manipulation under Xi Jinping

Under Xi Jinping, the cadre recruitment policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been adapted. What are the political implications of these adaptations? This paper argues that Xi has sought to consolidate his power among the political elite and strengthen grassroots governance by introducing a new cadre recruitment policy. We propose the concept of “dual elite recruitment logic” as an aid to interpreting the cadre recruitment strategy in the Xi era: the CCP’s system for appointing and promoting cadres at the full provincial/ministerial level (zhengbuji) and the grassroots follows’ criteria that are different from those formulated under the previous “rejuvenation of cadres” principle. While China under Xi may be able to maintain political stability and promote socio-economic development in the short term, the lack of a new succession mechanism is the biggest obstacle to China’s future political development.

Institutionalization of the Regional Political Elite: Recruitment and Professional Careers

The paper contemplates one of the aspects of institutionalization of regional political elite, i.e. the establishment of a specific recruitment pool and career track. The study is based on the analysis of the deputies’ biographies of ten legislatures of the Russian regions and of regional representatives in the Federal Assembly. A total of 660 biographies was analysed. The authors use structural-biographical method. Based on the study of career tracks and personal characteristics, it can be argued that institutionalization and a certain stability of the recruitment pool of regional political elite has largely occurred. Moreover, the observed mobility of some characteristics, such as education, pre-elite professional activity, is an indicator of a transition from the late Soviet and post-Soviet requirements and conditions of regional power formation to more modern ones. The authors observe the narrowing of the social space of elite recruitment and their plutocratization. The establishment of a deputy corps in a region entails some issues in the politics. The decrease of the number of deputies working full-time and professionally serving as a member of the regional legislature results in the depoliticization of public space and increase of the significance of the administrative elite.

Ein guter Hirte und Bürokrat oder: Was macht einen kompetenten Bischof aus?

A Good Shepherd and Bureaucrat or: What Makes a Good Bishop? Elite Recruitment as the Purpose of Roman Administrative Reform in the Late 17th Century Religious reforms characterized the Italian episcopacy during the 18th century. This article aims to show that these reforms were not so much driven by ideational issues but were the result of a lasting administrative reform. In 1676, Innocent XI had started a comprehensive process of bureaucratisation in the Roman Curia with the help of his auditor Giovanni Battista de Luca. Within this larger process, the pope appointed de Luca secretary of a new congregation that was supposed to select the most suitable candidates for Italian episcopal sees. Although this congregation was entitled to make decisions only in a few minor cases (since, in most Italian territories, the pope did not choose the new bishops) and although it worked only for about four years, it achieved long-term success. On the one hand, de Luca developed procedures that provided a permanent boost to the bureaucratisation process; on the other hand, he presented this new policy to a broad readership through his books. However, he did not describe his reforms as innovations but as a reconfiguration of the bureaucratic status quo in the Curia.

Elite Studies: For a New Approach

We provide a critical review of explanations given for the decline of elite studies in the later twentieth century and of related proposals for their revival. We then suggest an alternative approach to elite studies that could, we believe, prove sociologically more rewarding. This entails a broad understanding of elites, understood, however, as small-N entities. On this understanding, elites can then be characterised through prosopographical methods – the construction of collective biographies of their members. A better understanding may thus be gained of the degree of social exclusiveness of different elites, and on this basis further questions can be taken up of how far exclusiveness results from the varying processes through which elites are formally constituted and how far from the composition of the pools within which such elite recruitment occurs. Finally, questions can be addressed of the implications of social skewness in elite formation for equality of opportunity and for the wastage of talent that inequality entails, and then further for the so far sociologically neglected issue of the level of performance – the effectiveness – of elites in whatever field they exist.

Religion, Gender, and Representation in American Politics

ABSTRACT Several recent analyses have examined the effects of religious beliefs, belonging, and behaviors on the representation of women in American politics. Taken collectively, these studies present an interesting puzzle. Specifically, they demonstrate that religious adherents express attitudes that are less supportive of women in positions of political leadership and that at every stage of the process, from primary candidacy to general-election victory, women are less likely to run and win in districts with greater numbers of religious adherents. However, this does not appear to be the result of even the most devout voters’ unwillingness to support women candidates in general elections. This body of work, therefore, suggests that the effect of religion on the representation of women manifests at earlier stages of the process, including individual vote choice in primary elections, party and elite recruitment, and potential candidates’ strategic entry decisions.

Technocratic Populism à la Française? The Roots and Mechanisms of Emmanuel Macron’s Success

This article focuses on the roots and mechanisms of Macron’s success, arguing that in 2017 two conditions were essential in Macron’s rise—the implosion of the established system of the French Fifth Republic in which the two main parties were alternating in power; and the rise of anti-establishment populist challengers on the right and on the left (cf. Stockemer, 2017; Zulianello, 2020). It was anti-establishment appeal that put Macron on the map, but the appeal to technocratic competence that won him the presidency. Technocratic populism transcends the left–right cleavage and, as a result, has a broader appeal than its left- and right-wing counterparts. Emmanuel Macron was an insider taking on the (crumbling) system and positioning himself as an outsider—refusing the traditional labels, including centrism, elite recruitment patterns, and mediated politics. Instead, Macron and <em>La Republique en Marche</em> attempted to create new forms of responsiveness by ‘giving voice to the people,’ while relying on technocratic competence as a legitimation mechanism. In power Emmanuel Macron attempts to balance responsiveness and responsibility (cf. Guasti &amp; Buštíková, 2020).

SCENARIOS OF TRANSFORMATION OF REGIONAL ELITES IN THE LATE SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET PERIODS: RESULTS OF SYSTEM-DYNAMIC MODELING

The article presents realistic and alternative (counterfactual) scenarios for the development of regional administrative and political elites in Russia in 1985-2004. The scenarios are built using a system-dynamic model that simulates elite recruitment in the Powersim Studio software environment. The model describes the mechanisms and channels for recruiting managerial personnel, as well as the sociopolitical forces that influenced elite substitution. Experiments with the model allow us to explore different variants of the evolution of elites. The counterfactual scenario proceeds from the hypothetical refusal of M.S. Gorbachev from dismantling the nomenclature system and from eliminating the CPSU’s control over the «placement of personnel». The model demonstrates that in this case, there was no rapid degradation of regional elites (as was the case in the realistic scenario). However, by the beginning of the 2000s, other systemic problems arose due to the gap between the principles of forming the management apparatus and the transforming socio-economic realities.

The Rise of Technocratic Leadership in the 1990s in the People’s Republic of China

The transformation of China’s political elite provides important insights into the nation’s political metamorphosis and the changes in cadre selection criteria. The current literature explains the composition of Chinese political elites by referencing cross-sectional biographic data and describing how the revolutionary veterans stepped down and were replaced by the technocrats who emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. However, explanations for the rise of the technocrats have largely been limited to socioeconomic factors. By analyzing the longitudinal data of Chinese provincial leaders during the period of 1990–2013, this article shows the rise of technocrats in Chinese politics in the 1990s but also provides an explanation for it from the perspectives of individuals’ career paths and the contemporaneous political and policy landscapes. These explanations were drawn from analyses of the expansion of higher education and faculty restructuring in the 1950s, graduate job assignments, the recruitment and promotion of young and middle-aged cadres, and the cadre policy known as the Four Modernizations of the early 1980s. This article presents the interactions among individuals’ career opportunities, group composition characteristics, and socioeconomic and macropolitical dynamics. It also reveals how the Chinese Communist Party legitimizes its ruling power and maintains state capacity and political order through elite recruitment.