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This article provides a tour d'horizon of the recent emigration of the Kurdish political elite from Turkey and contextualizes it in its historical course. Specifically, the article discusses the similarities and differences of the exilic waves at the two ends of the chain of pro-Kurdish political parties in Turkey, i.e., the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democracy Party (DEP). Based on semi-structured elite interviews, a comparison of the patterns of integration with and differentiation from the Kurdish diaspora organizations in Europe, in particular, reveals significant variation between these two exilic waves despite their common root cause. Such variation, coupled with tensions derived mainly from the hierarchal structure of the Kurdish diaspora organizations, fuels a rivalry that may alter the composition of Kurdish political elites in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the relationship between the military and political elites in the United States, through the lens of theoretical concepts that have approached it in the post-Cold War environment. This era was marked by external pressures that pushed for greater subordination of military personnel to political authority, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had previously necessitated an expansion of military independence. However, soon after, counterproductive results emerged, manifesting in severe crises between the two elites as signs appeared of military personnel’s reluctance to comply with political directives and positions. The study concludes that the expansion of political interventions in American military policy was dictated by the new position the United States occupied in the new international system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractCorruption is recurrent in conversations and political debates, but it can have different meanings. This study aimed to assess how the words that 1,020 citizens and 120 politicians in Portugal associated with corruption interacted and varied. Data came from two surveys that collected responses to “What words do you associate with corruption?” from October 2020 to April 2021: the EPOCA-FCT survey conducted with citizens and the ETHICS-FFMS survey conducted with MPs and local elected officials in office. We used network analysis to find that the mass-elite incongruence when defining corruption can be used (a) to enhance corruption surveys and (b) as a tool to foster political will for anti-corruption reform in areas/sectors that are linked to corruption. In Portugal, corruption came down to “theft of money by politicians” (citizens) and “dishonesty and illegality in a crony relationship” (politicians), and the promotion of integrity in the Banking sector emerged as central to any anti-corruption reform. This was the first attempt to show that knowing what citizens and politicians have in mind can be a valid tool to enhance both the quality of future corruption surveys and the implementation of anti-corruption policies when no short-term political will for a change exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to elite and mass surveys, the late-Soviet sociopolitical and economic order was largely perceived as the only viable alternative to domestic political and economic status quo in Russia before 2022. Political elites invested significant efforts and funds into deliberative promotion of a complex of ideational legacies through different tools (including cinematography). This complex, labeled a "Good Soviet Union," is an imagined sociopolitical and economic order, which somehow resembles that of the late-Soviet past, while lacking its inherent flaws. Elements of the Soviet legacy were selectively chosen for the sake of preservation of the politico-economic status quo. They include the hierarchical mechanism of governance, low circulation of elites and their privileged status, state control over media, and repressions toward organized dissent. Meanwhile, other elements of the late-Soviet past, such as relatively low inequality and certain state social guarantees, have been discarded. A "Good Soviet Union" model includes not only market economy and no shortages of goods and services, but also a lack of institutional constraints on rent-seeking and legalization of wealth and status of elites. In this article, we consider a "Good Soviet Union" as a socially constructed legacy of the past and focus on mechanisms of translation of this legacy into Russia's current agenda through the use of modern Russian cinematography and analysis of policy preferences on the part of political elites. We further consider its effects on politics and policy-making, as well as its limitations and constraints. Some implications of the social construction of Soviet legacies are discussed in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of women as political elites is increasingly important, which makes gender inequality widespread. This study examines the expansion, role, and contribution of DPD women of the Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) in the 2020 Medan City regional head elections with a case study on the Akhyar-Salman couple. Qualitative research was conducted by collecting data on the role of female PKS party members and leaders in winning the Akhyar-Salman pair through in-depth interviews with research subjects. sample determination using a purposive sampling technique. All data were processed descriptively. The results showed that the expansion of women in improving the quality and quantity of regional elections in Medan City is significant; this is indicated by the contribution of women's political elites in mobilizing the implementation of campaigns in the community and attracting public interest from upstream to downstream to introduce the Akhyar-Salman couple. Women's political elites have functions and responsibilities in winning candidate pairs through door-to-door campaigns to each household, creating work programs that attract women to join, such as carrying out women's recitation (dakwah), helping communities affected by disasters, and carrying out approaches to the ulama. In addition, the most prominent expansion of women lies in the gender equality program and equal access to information, which have the most decisive influence on the campaign process. The work program launched by the mayoral and deputy candidate pairs is the result of preliminary studies of the community and data collection by the DPD PKS women's political elites. Finally, the Japuan program (women's network) indicates that voter accommodation and navigation can be appropriately managed by disseminating information related to candidate pairs by political elites from the PKS party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of the relationship between politics and business ahead of the 15th General Election in Malaysia is very interesting to be analyzed. The fall of Barisan Nasional (BN) in the previous 14th General Election has ended the dominance of the coalition of parties that dominated the accumulation and concentration of wealth at the federal level through the practice of patronage politics in Malaysia since independence. In addition to ending BN's dominance, GE-14 also opened critical awareness among the masses about political funding and the relationship between politics and business, especially following the biggest kleptocracy scandals in history, namely 1MDB and Najib Razak. Through secondary data, this study analyzes the relationship between politics and business through the perspective of the elite who lead the parties in the 15th General Election. The findings of the relationship between the political elite and business are analyzed through the aspects of direct ownership of the political elite in private companies, ownership of the political elite in governmentlinked companies (GLC), ownership of the closest family members of the political elite in private companies and GLCs, as well as ownership of the closest friends of the political elite in private companies and GLC. This study also reflects the implications of the relationship between the political elite and business from the point of view of the equality of political funding which is quite critical for fair political competition in a democratic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to analyze the political-discursive and ideological action involving the creation of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in the city of Cáceres, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. To achieve this goal, the following procedures were adopted: a) Survey of the literature on the subject to build a conceptual and exploratory theoretical framework; b) Documentary analysis; and c) Field work, through which the researched phenomenon was addressed. In addition to observation, photographic records of the study area, interviews with key people and collection of extracts from printed newspapers relating to the period between 1988 and 2018 were carried out at the Municipal Public Archive of Cáceres, Mato Grosso. It was observed that there are political-discursive and ideological disagreements regarding the different political articulations of the state and its main local agents throughout the process of implementing the EPZ in Cáceres. In this political-discursive and ideological game, the political use of the media, particularly printed newspapers, became clear. It was found that segments of the regional and local political elite in Caceres, relying on certain scenarios, employed broad discursive strategies. In this way, they acted by aligning the discourse with developmentalist ideological interests, understanding the EPZ as the only effective instrument of industrial economic policy to promote local/regional development. Despite such assessment by the regional political and economic elite, the concrete fact is that the implementation of the EPZ did not take place and is still surrounded by many uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African states have undergone dynamic political processes ever since their struggle for independence. Students have played an important role in political developments and triggered processes of democratisation. In the course of recent waves of protests and political activism, however, students took a more ambivalent stance against both the state and the political elite. This report is based in parts on field research. It discusses the relation between student activism and the political elite in Kenya. During the overall change in the meaning and function of higher education, universities and student activism have played an important role in political development. This report analyses the education system on the basis of (qualitative) research on education and student activism in Kenya. The paper focuses on the education system as an important factor in the recruitment of political elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly debates on civil–military relations often focus on how the military impacts society. Adding to the vast literature of civil–military relations, this article examines how socio-cultural practices and societal developments in the host society affect the military. Based on long-term ethnographic engagement with the Ghana Armed Forces, the piece presents empirical observations of how culturally informed practices, such as begging via proxies (djuan toa), infiltrate the Ghanaian military barracks and affect the institutions' functioning. The article illustrates how two additional elements, skewed recruitment practices and the politicisation of the rank and file, are used as tools by political factions, such as Ghana's two most prominent parties (the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress), seeking to gain control over the Ghanaian military. The article analyses how these approaches contribute to undermining the armed forces' discipline and military professionalism and consequently affect the military institution as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Founding Generations project which analyzes the biographical data of parliamentarians who served in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey between 1920 and 1950 to visualize and analyze the refugee experience with digital humanities. Topics covered include the digital humanities methods used, the preliminary findings and the association relationships discovered through the association rule mining.

The material relics of socialism continue to affect present-day rural Romania. This article explores the nexus of socialist/post-socialist agricultural infrastructure, groundwater, soil transformations, the privatization process and the constitution of power relations along the Lower Danube rural areas. Positioning ourselves in the anthropology of infrastructure, we document both ethnographically and with Geographic Information Systems tools the social and political consequences of broken agricultural infrastructure in a village located on the banks of the Lower Danube, Romania. We show how the local political elite is able to exploit the surfacing of groundwater in their favour, resulting in economic loss only for small landholders and villagers without power. The interface of the multiple temporalities inherent in infrastructure with the various materialities of groundwater – its propensity to leak, infiltrate and surface – precipitated the emergence of a new ecological order. The new hybrid ecology is made up of pre-socialist feral groundwater, the socialist 'hydraulic society' that reclaimed agricultural land, and the post-socialist political economy. We engage a more-than-human perspective in order to offer a more sophisticated – and realistic – picture of post-socialist rural power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes to what extent the social status of the wives of Romanian politicians in Transylvania, their matrimonial alliances and religious denomination influenced the rise and political-cultural behavior of their spouses in the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The analysis focuses on the wives of Romanian Greek Catholic deputies who served in the Diets of Transylvania (1863-1866) and, subsequently, in the Hungarian Parliament between 1861 and 1918. Starting from the latest European historiographic research on the impact of socio-economic and cultural factors on individual social mobility, we aim to achieve several objectives. First, we want to identify the socio-economic background of the Greek Catholic Romanian deputies' wives and to see whether this actually played a decisive role in their husbands' affirmation either as individuals or as members of various decision-making groups. Second, based on a few case studies, we aim to detect the family networks created through matrimonial alliances and the extent to which they contributed to the rise and consolidation of these politicians' careers. We will also try to understand the ways in which the religious denominations of the deputies' wives may have influenced the social, political and cultural conduct of their husbands. Last but not least, we aim to discuss a few aspects of these women's marital behavior, including their role in the couple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional head elections are part of the implementation of a democracy which is essentially indicated by political participation. The political elite at the central government also influences political competition in the regions. Every regional head election has to have a recommendation letter from the central board of the political party. The recommendation letter is a requirement for candidates for regent or mayor who will register to the General Election Commission (KPU). The general elections for regional heads are carried out to meet the demands of the community to elect their regional leaders directly with the spirit of democracy. Political elites often misuse democracy in pursuing power for personal or group interests so that a single candidate appears in the regional head elections. This study analyzes the relationship between the political elites and a single candidate using qualitative methods with descriptive analysis based on credible data sources. The results of this study stated that the political elite manipulate a significant role in gathering all-party support with a separate agreement so that a single candidate emerged in the regional head elections. This study concludes that the existence of a single candidate in the regional head elections results in a degradation in the democracy in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transfer of higher knowledge and the creation of an intellectual tradition in the history of Islamic civilization are understood to be directly related to the madrasa institution. This study aims to present a madrasa conceptualization through the example of four madrasas in Cairo. During the Mamluk Sultanate, madrasas had the characteristics of higher education institutions in which students from four madhhabs could be educated under the same roof. The sultans evidently established many of the madrasas built during the Mamluk Sultanate, and wealthy waqfs were allocated to these madrasas to maintain their scientific activities, which made an essential contribution to Cairo’s scientific life. The Mamluk political elite explicitly supported the ulama class that embodied the main force of the social structure as well as their scientific activities with the material resources allocated to them; these elite recognized the authority the ulama had over the society. Mamluk madrasas have such a complex structure that they do not have any single dimension, purpose, or function. The madrasas shed light on the historical course of the intellectual tradition that developed within the political, economic, social, and religious networks of the period and that had been shaped in line with the needs of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a reflective academic article, which exposes some reasons that could influence a large part of the Colombian population on June 19, 2022 to decline the possibility of electorally supporting or voting for the presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, and decided on the candidate Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego. The document addresses the origin of the candidate Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, his business activities, political background, his performance as mayor of Bucaramanga, and also recounts some actions and strategies followed in the race for the presidency of the republic in the year 2022. It also takes into account the independent origin of its political movement and its approaches to traditional political currents such as Uribismo and others that have remained in power for a long time, and that in the document are called political elites or establishment. Also, the results of the first presidential round of May 29, 2022 are mentioned, and the particular circumstance of the offer of immediate support on that date to the candidacy of Rodolfo Hernández by the defeated candidate Federico Gutiérrez, who was also joined by the ruling elite and other so-called independent political leaders, and the mainstream media. Likewise, mention is made of some inconsistencies and inconsistencies of the candidate Rodolfo Hernández, which made it foreseeable that it would be impossible to fulfill part of what was promised in the campaign or that it would be inconvenient to materialize his plans, for example the fight against corruption, the narrowness of the state, the contempt for public workers such as teachers, police officers and ambassadors. In addition to the foregoing, the lack of a government team that had clarity on the public policies to be promoted by Engineer Rodolfo Hernández, the lack of experience in government tasks, and the possibility that he ended up appointing a government team with people belonging to the traditional political and economic elite that has held power in recent years, as well as the inconvenience of mixing the public sector with the business sector in a kind of co-governance. Finally, it alludes to the poor performance of the candidate in some private and public settings that distanced him as a reference for Colombian society, an aspect that was added to an evident ignorance of the State and the world context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 30 years have passed since Latvia gained its independence, however, systematic studies of present-day relationship between media and politics are still missing. Latvia is a country where choice of media is largely determined by ethnicity. Representatives from ethnic groups acquire their daily information from different news sources, as the result the trust levels in media depend on the media format and the language of choice. This study adds to the literature by studying the perceptions of Latvian Members of Parliament on media agenda-setting power. Drawing on surveys of Latvian parliamentarians, the agenda-setting power of media is assessed and compared to the survey results in Finland. The results reveal that politicians in Latvia and in Finland think that, in general, media have a massive influence on politics, but the power of written press in Latvia is less evident. And although MPs acknowledge that media can have a significant influence on how decisions are made, the greatest impact will be observed during political debates that can be covered by the media. This study also demonstrates that even though Latvia scores high in the world press freedom ranks, MPs do not trust the media to a large extent and that can be a dangerous signal for the functioning of democracy. The results offer valuable information about the influence of media in countries outside Western Europe and provide a basis for further discussions on surveys as a method for studying the power of media agenda-setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE PROFOUND CHANGES THAT TOOK PLACE IN ROMANIAN SOCIETY IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY WERE ALSO REFLECTED IN POLITICAL LIFE, AT LEAST AT A THEORETICAL LEVEL. THE BREAK WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, WHICH WAS ENTERING ITS FINAL PHASE AFTER THE RETURN TO THE LANDED DOMINIONS, MADE PART OF THE ROMANIAN POLITICAL ELITE TURN ITS ATTENTION TOWARDS THE WEST. POLITICAL PRINCIPLES SUCH AS THE SEPARATION OF POWERS IN THE STATE, NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, POLITICAL REPRESENTATION, RULE OF LAW, THE CONSTITUTIONAL REGIME AND POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVENESS BEGAN TO MAKE THEIR WAY INTO THE POLITICAL VOCABULARY OF THE PRINCIPALITY. MANY POLITICAL REFORM PROJECTS ADVOCATE THE ADOPTION OF A MODEL BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS IN THE STATE, A PRINCIPLE THAT MONTESQUIEU HAD ALREADY SET OUT IN THE MID-18TH CENTURY IN HIS WELL-KNOWN WORK THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS. HOWEVER, THE MODERNIZATION OF ROMANIAN SOCIETY WAS AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TASK, GIVEN THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE INHABITANTS OF WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA LIVED IN RURAL AREAS, IN PRECARIOUS ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND WITHOUT ACCESS TO INSTITUTIONAL EDUCATION. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the attitudes of the 11,410 candidates in the Finnish 2017 municipal elections who had responded to a Voting Advice Application. Women candidates were, both in terms of economic and social attitudes, more progressive than men. Building on the gender diagnosticity approach, we used responses to the attitude items to construct a dimensional measure of political genderedness; i.e., a measure of the femininity–masculinity of the individual's political attitudes. We used this measure to investigate the magnitude of sex differences across parties and the determinants of these differences. Sex differences were larger in parties with more economically right-oriented, socially conservative, well-off, and male candidates. Moreover, these differences were caused by men in these parties being different from other candidates. A similar methodology, in which a continuous measure of genderedness is used to assess sex differences, could be used in other domains of research on political behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to identify the factors that influence the selection of ministers in Brazil, considering the number of portfolios and their importance and saliency. We identify the regional influence on such selection, controlling for ministers' personal characteristics and trajectories, including political aspects, expertise, and proximity, and loyalty to the president. We use an original dataset that covers the entire period known as the New Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Review article that seeks to identify the theoretical developments of the concept of political class and its analogues; in addition, it is about capturing the differences of these concepts to show the transformations of the political class in Caldas. Methodology: a qualitative meta-analysis of the findings was applied, which were derived from the documentary search around the aforementioned key concepts, based on certain categories and analysis criteria. Results: a definition of political class was reached, understood as a group of individuals who have an organic relationship with politics and direct interests placed in it; this, regardless of whether or not they hold public office, although they do hold political power, such as the possibility of making decisions that affect members of the public sphere. With this categorization, an analysis was made of the uses of these concepts in Colombia and Caldas. There the continuities and transformations of its political class are shown from the Antioquia Colonization to the present time, and its configuration as a leading group and the role played in the future of the department are specified. Conclusions: it highlights the cyclical nature of Caldense politics in relation to its political elites in light of recent events. The classic statement regarding the theory of elites is also confirmed, which assumes these groupings as a constant in all democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes an empirical and systematic analysis of the three cabinets of the government of «Cambiemos» in Argentina: that of Mauricio Macri in the Nation, that of María Eugenia Vidal in the province of Buenos Aires, and that of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The study will allow, first, to characterize the general sociological profile presented by this executive political elite as of 2015; second, to show the similarities and differences presented by the three cabinets compared; third, to identify continuities and ruptures in certain general trends in the configuration of Argentine political elites, linking these cabinets with others, designated by previous governments; and finally, to assess the extent to which the political personnel of «Cambiemos» constituted, or not, a new political elite in recent Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we explore the difficulties and misuse of the concept of integration of immigrant into the chilean society, analyzed in the realm of politics and public policy; whereas in the public rhetoric integration is defined using its multiculturalists version, politics defines as assimilation. Social sciences is aware of the difficulty of using this concept in the public policy arena, domestic politics and the new bills regarding immigration. The concept of integration also involves other social and cultural minorities, therefore, makes the use and misuse of the concept more complicated in the political arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polygynous marriages of Thai kings traditionally fulfilled a range of vital political functions. Comparison between those marriages and the marriages of politicians active in the post-1932 constitutional regime era illustrate the continuing political significance of marriage in Thailand. Polygyny has become highly contextualized with different sections of Thai society operating according to varying marital norms. Performative monogamy is thus necessary. This situation suggests weaknesses in the Thai regime of images as it relates to the notional separation between public and private spheres and to the idea of multiple truths. Neither applies to the marriages of members of the Thai political elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of elite politics in the emergence of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. It argues that the struggle between political elites of northern and southern extractions over the control of state power has intensified national conflicts and insurgency in the country. Political elites are no longer divided by ideology but by economics of state power. Elite politics of who gets what, when, and how and the struggle for state power led to the formation of the sect and fuels the incessant attacks and insecurity in Nigeria. The study adopts a methodology involving re-description of history based on documentary research. It establishes that elite politics accounts for the emergence and escalation of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. Accordingly, the study recommends that good and inclusive governance be employed as a panacea for harmonizing the fractured Nigerian state and overcoming insurgency in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deborah Perez offers a detailed analysis of the daily interactions among deputies of the Constituent National Assembly (2011-2014) in order to challenge micro-analyses that argue that the constitution was merely the outcome of a pact among party leaders. She emphasizes the importance of contingency and improvisation that granted deputies a margin of autonomy towards the party leaderships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has seen think tanks operate in sophisticated ways to influence the development of education policies. In this paper, I reflect upon the influence of think tanks in the formation of national reform, using the Common Core State Standards initiative in the USA as an illustrative case. In doing so, I explore how certain think tanks, headed by political elites and backed by significant philanthropic funding, have sought to influence the reform initiative. My central argument is that meanings and practices associated with political publics are being transformed as elite policy actors gain influence. Through mobilising significant political and economic power, elites work through think tanks to influence policy debates, re-frame policy problems and advocate for particular policy solutions. The new public formations that are resulting appear to be shifting the conditions of possibility for policy making in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research has explored the impact of the bureaucratic elite on constitution making of Pakistan during 1947-56. It elaborates the causes of the emergence of bureaucracy as ruling authority that restrained the constitutional development in Pakistan in the specific period. While assuming the hypothesis that uncontrolled bureaucracy created hurdles in the development of constitution making in Pakistan. This paper explores the constitutional history of Pakistan during the first decade (1947-1956). Historical analysis of constitutional development presented in this paper will help students of politics and history to learn about the dominant role of bureaucracy. Mixed approach method has been adopted to describe and analyze the facts and figures related to the topic for providing the readers thorough information about the set-up and impact of bureaucracy in Pakistan that caused a delay in the formation of the constitution during the period of 1947-56. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift in Beijing’s priorities to more balanced and people-oriented development has led some localities to make more efforts in developing social policy areas. By investigating the personnel institution, a political incentive mechanism, this article aims to shed light on the structure of political incentives in China and why local political leaders improve public welfare in a non-democratic setting. A content analysis of 69 regulations that cover one-third of all municipal leaders shows that the formal evaluation rules for leaders in some localities have become more welfare-oriented to reflect Beijing’s new focus on social policy areas. A statistical analysis further reveals that different political incentives operate for municipal Party leaders and mayors, and that political incentives to develop social policy vary across geographic regions. The statistical analysis exploits an original dataset I compiled from an online archive and statistical yearbooks, and contains biographic and career history data on municipal leaders between 2003 and 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that leadership promotion in China’s political elite relies on homophily for signals of trustworthiness and future cooperative behavior more than on economic performance. We first point to the limitation of the economic performance argument from within the framework of China’s specific M-form state structure, and then we proffer a sociological explanation for why higher-level elites in China rely on homophilous associations in recruiting middle-level elites to the top positions of state. Using a unique dataset covering China’s provincial leaders from 1979 to 2011, we develop a homophily index focusing on joint origin, joint education and joint work experience. We trace personal similarities in these respects between provincial leaders and members of China’s supreme decision-making body, the Politbureau’s Standing Committee. We then provide robust evidence confirming the persisting impact of homophilous associations on promotion patterns in post-reform China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the Elite Network Shifts (ens) project to the Asian Studies community where computational techniques are used with digitised newspaper articles to describe changes in relations among Indonesian political elites. Reflecting on how "political elites" and "political relations" are understood by the elites, as well as across the disciplinary boundaries of the social and computational sciences, it suggests ways to operationalise these concepts for digital research. It then presents the results of a field trip where six Indonesian political elites were asked to evaluate the accuracy of their own computational networks generated by the project. The main findings of the paper are: (1) The computational identification of political elites is relatively successful, while much work remains on categorising their relations, (2) social scientists should focus on capturing single dimensions of complex social phenomena when using computational techniques, and (3) computational techniques are not able to capture multiple understandings of social concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects proportional representation of women in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia (CC CPL) basing on the transcripts of the local party congresses and personnel records of party functionaries, as well as on the analysis of the CPL statistics materials. The main attention is paid to the representation of women in the political elite, sources of its formation and ethno-political preconditions and patterns of women's career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the complex political, legal, socioculturel and geopolitical problems generated by the current political crisis in Ukraine. The authors analyze its historical and sociopolitical preconditions as well as its global context. This crisis sheds light on prospects for geopolitical and geoeconomic reconfiguration of the post-Soviet space. The focus is on problems of the Ukrainian state's national consolidation, dysfunctions of the democratic process in Ukraine, efficiency of Ukraine's democratic political institutions, and transformations in the constitutional and legal system and the political regime. The authors analyze in political terms the risks of the failure and possible disintegration of Ukrainian statehood, prospects for re-establishing the state as a crisis management option, postrevolutionary destructive practices, and the growing role of informal institutions in Ukrainian politics. They also consider the growing and qualitatively aggravating rifts in Ukrainian society, which are largely the consequence of the nation building policy conducted within the ethnonational model and based on the mobilization resources of xenophobia. A comparative analysis of the Ukrainian and Russian post-Soviet political systems' transformations is presented. The authors also look at alternatives to the interaction between the oligarchy, the bureaucracy and political personalism in these countries. As a result of this interaction, we have two different consolidation prospects of their political systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muṣāhara (affinity/relation by marriage) represented one of the essential distinctions of the ruling elite of fourteenth-century Granada. Ibn al-Khaṭīb understood its importance for life in Granada and he felt the need to mention it whenever two people were related by marriage. His perception has been taken as one of the most fundamental for historical research, as he drew on his personal experience in Granada. This study first defines the concept of the ruling elite of fourteenth-century Granada. Within this group, the concept of muṣāhara as understood by Ibn al-Khaṭīb is further elaborated. The definition of muṣāhara is followed by the description of its actual use among the families close to the office of the vizier (wazīr) and by Ibn al-Khaṭīb himself. The history of one of these families (al-Fihrī) has been hailed as an exceptional example of the "ruling elite family" that included contemporaries and adversaries of Ibn al-Khaṭīb. The example of the al-Fihrī family shows how strong and active their position was during the rule of every fourteenth-century emir. Consequently, this study demonstrates that the extensive Granadan families similar to those known from the fifteenth century had existed and cooperated with each other before this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2013 Bundestag election saw a very high turnover in MPs. The FDP, which previously held ninety-three seats in the Bundestag did not get re-elected, and about 100 members had announced their retirement prior to the election. This article looks at whether the 217 new members have a significantly different sociodemographic and career profile to the re-elected members. While providing an insight into the sociodemographic profiles and career tracks of German MPs, the article finds that not much has changed in sociodemographic profiles and career tracks to the Bundestag. Changes in the occupational structure, however, signal that for more and more MPs politics is becoming a long-term career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to analyse the sociological profiles of Tokat MP's in Turkish Multi Party Period (1950-2014). Social background characteristics were employed to realise the purposes. Major sociological indicators (such as gender, age, education, occupation, family size, etc. ) were used to achieve the aims. Documentary and historical research techniques were used during the study. The major data set was produced from the official publications and records and publications of the Turkish Grand National Assembly which is the main legislative organ in Turkey. The data set was analysed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to make an empirical contribution to the analysis the influence of gender in the political elite. Applying the theoretical models that define the construction of gender as psychological and social positions generally differentiated according to the sex in parliamentary activities. It develops a qualitative analysis about gender in parliamentary debates. The material analyzed was the text of Diaris de Sessions from 28th and 29th September 2005 relating the debate sessions about the proposition of reform of the Statute of autonomy of Catalonia. Beyond the contribution to the sociological perspective that involves the analysis, based on the results of this, the work emphasized the need for inclusion of woman in the politics. Under-representation of woman runs in parallel to an orientation of debates towards the confrontation , the objectivism and the universalism, characteristic of the male gender, and low relative presence of speeches focusing on the reconciliation of positions and needs of individuals, traits that characterize the female gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst much has been written on the role and function of the elite schools in Hitler’s vision for his ‘thousand-year Reich’, this article focuses on an area within the history of the Ordensburgen that has not been examined – that is, the content of training for particular groups given at these elite educational institutions during the wartime period. This article begins with a short general overview of the role of the Ordensburgen in Nazi society for the purpose of contextualisation and then moves on to examine the specific lecture programmes of the training course for South Tyrolean political leaders, which took place at Ordensburg Sonthofen from 12 August–4 September 1940. Its purpose is to discover the lecture content and training given to political leaders in this elite educational institution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper first discusses the theoretical phenomenon of a spectacle in order to apply theoretical assumptions in the analysis of online media writing about the celebration of 1700 year anniversary of the Edict of Milan. We analyzed a total corpus of 30542 words from selected articles and comments collected between 2009 and 2013 from online media portals of daily newspapers, weekly magazines, tabloids, the public service, news agencies, media, religious media and exclusively web-based media. The results indicate that a state-centric celebration of 17 centuries since the Edict of Milan in Serbia include symbiosis of church and state, and has all characteristics of the spectacle medialized by the same model. The characteristics of the spectacle are overbudgeting, exaggeration, promoting political, economic and symbolic elites, not the event itself. In amateur media, the web portals followed the dynamics of the events and controversy, but not the essence of the reason for celebration. In comparison with editorial policies, media coverage formed the dominant discourse of reporting, often without critical reflection on the role of the state and the church in this event. Internet users were more critical towards the pseudo-event, and his mediatisation. At the same time, it cannot be concluded that a virtual public opinion was formed. This time it turned out again that it was only a part of the public that was critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to find general sociological characteristics of Artvin MP's in Multi Party Period (Since 19146 up to Date). On the final stage the place of Artvin MP's in Turkish political elites will be examined. Social background peculiarities (gender, age, education, occupation, family size) were used to achieve the aims. Documentary and historical research techniques were applied in the paper. An original data set was produced for analysis from the official publications and records and publications of the Turkish Grand National Assembly which is the main legislative organ in Turkey. The data set was analysed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantitative analysis of the corpus of Romanian official political discourse spontaneously constituted in 19181 offers interesting and somewhat surprising results. The strangeness, whether real or apparent, lies in the proportion of terms and sentences with a religious meaning. The amount of these is impressive, occupying a second place closely behind the concept of nation. One may say that the speakers have not taken this path because they were braided by a deliberate intellectual construct, but they were rather inspired by the spirituality of the age and the place. They employed pre-existing structures of collective mentality, overlapping national action - history experienced - with Christian history, still very. much alive in the consciousness of more or less educated Romanians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elites are found in the summit of each social groups in society. Elites of each social group effective the own group management. Political elites control and use the resources while effective the state management and decision process. Analysis the social structure of Turkish political elites deduce about into the political participation of society while enlighten the structure of political parties. Analysis carried out periodically on the Turkish political elite. At this article, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey 23. Period Parliamentarians's social structure and distribution to political parties were explained Therefore, the parliamentarians's age, gender, profession, education and foreign language were analysied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to analyze the discursive identity buildings from the perspective of the members of the Hungarian political elite who has to give a reasoned endorsement to the people that it stands for, as a way to prove not only a territorial belonging, but also the irreconcilable differences of this ethnic group in relationship to the majority represented by the Romanians. From this perspective, we analyze the feeling of the national affiliation, the claim of the regional autonomy and the setting of the "historical memory" in the public sphere, with recurrent use in the rhetoric of the Hungarian political elite, as possible elements generating conflict for a minority group whose level of perception of its own difference in opposition to the identity of the majority is very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an analysis of youth values in Croatia in the socialist and post-socialist periods, comparing them with values of older citizens and of the political elite. The comparative analysis is based on data obtained through four empirical investigations conducted in 1986, 1999 and 2004. The results show that the predominant youth values remain stable, with minor oscillations in rank. The aspects in which the young are different from the older citizens are a broader variety of interests, a greater acceptance of post-materialistic values, and a lesser acceptance of traditional and political values. It is also shown that the optimism of youth is constantly on a high level, as well as their satisfaction with life, which is more pronounced than with older citizens. In all analyzed segments the political elite is noticeably different from both above-mentioned groups. The overall findings confirm that the acceptance of observed values varies depending on the social-political context, and the age and social status of the respondents. Since the scope of the variations is limited, the author concludes that this analysis gives one more confirmation of the relative stability of values, and of the fact that they are transmitted from generation to generation in a way which does not endanger social continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyze Turkish politics in the post-1980 period with a special reference to the relationship among the state elites, political elites and societal actors, and its impact on the constitution of civil society in Turkey. After the 1980 military intervention, the political and economic realms of Turkey witnessed a relative degree of liberalization through Özal's neo-liberal policies. The January 24 economic decisions paved the way for economic liberalization as well as letting new economic and societal actors emerge. These new economic actors were different from the prevailing economic actors which used to enjoy a considerable amount of opportunity spaces in the economic sphere. Together with the Özal governments, Islamic segments started to become powerful in both political and economic realms. This paper analyses the chief traits of Turkish politics and economics and their impact upon civil society aftermath the 1980 coup in general, and the relationship and/or interaction among the state elites, political elites and societal actors in particular. The engagements of newly-emerging societal and economic actors into Turkish political scene and the challenge of these actors against the so-called "Kemalist-Republican" elites are also illustrated in the paper. Moreover, state-Islam interaction, politics-Islam interaction as well as Kemalism-newly-emerging societal and economic actors interaction will be studied with a special emphasis to the post-1980 period. The major argument of the paper is that, in Turkey, both civil society issues and political issues reveal outcomes which are primarily shaped by the nature of the relationship between state elites and political elites in general and by Turkish political culture in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the social composition of the Chilean political elite and party change. Based on a case study of deputies elected between 1961 and 2005, the article explores factors which have determined party change in the post-authoritarian period, concentrating empirically on transformations in the composition of parliamentary elites with regard to their social characteristics and political trajectory. It is argued that these transformations reflect the tensions that tendencies towards professionalization and democratization have created for Chilean political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]