Configurations of the Governmental Elites in Post-Communist Romania
Keywords:
Political elites, governmental elites, configurations, social background, postcommunismAbstract
Elites are dominant minorities comprising individuals or groups who, because of innate or acquired characteristics, obtain higher performances in certain fields, expressed in terms of power and prestige, occupy high positions in the hierarchy of the social system and takes strategic decisions. Through their specific activities, elites can be connected to the political decision (political elites) or may be independent of the politics (non-political elites). Within political elites, it can be differentiate between the governmental positions/ministries (governmental elites) and other non-executive political positions (non-governmental elites). The way in which governmental elite decide what to do or not to do has a significant impact on the evolution of society in a specific period of time. This paper aims to analyze governmental elite’s configurations and their impact on the quality of governance in post-communist Romania (1990-2015). The governmental elite’s configuration represents the structure of the internal composition according to certain variables (age, education, gender, age at appointment as minister, social origin, political affiliation, previous political experience etc.). The analysis of Postcommunist Romania governmental elite’s configurations will highlight the "hard" (dominant) features related to the processes of democratization, democratic consolidation, and good governance. The main hypothesis of this study is the following: governmental elite’s configuration has a strong impact on the quality of governance. The research methodology is based on social backgrounds analysis, statistical analysis using SPSS and analysis of homogeneity versus heterogeneity of governmental elite’s configuration.References
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