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.