Abstract
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The recruitment process at the local level in East-Central Europe has generated quite a vivid debate on the criteria both the literature and the “selectorates” identify as particularly important locally when running for a seat in the Municipal Council or for the mayoral position. This paper aims to clarify on these criteria of eligibility for a municipal councillor’s position, at different levels of the selection process, with a specific emphasis on the selection by the party. While attempting to construct a typology of the political recruitment in ECE, it puts the differences in this process among ECE states in connection to the level of decentralization specific to each case.
The paper draws on the observations resulting from the field research of the doctoral thesis in six small towns (of similar demographics, but enjoying different degrees of administrative decentralization) in six states of the region of East-Central Europe (Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria), during the last two electoral tests (2012, 2016); the observations concerned particularly the three-layered selection process (i.e., “certification”, “nomination”, and “election”) in these towns, for the members of the Municipal Councils there; they discuss the self-selection (identifying the personal “triggers” for entering politics/ public office, in relation to the incumbency level); the selection by the party (including: formal eligibility criteria, formal recruitment process as described in each party statute, types of “proximities” facilitating the presence on a candidates’ list, types of selectorates, etc.); and the selection at the polls. While discussing this process, the paper differentiates between “intramural” and “extramural” selection and identifies the recurrence of splinters and local parties, putting these phenomena in connection to the level of decentralization characterizing each municipality. This study also uses the five clusters initially employed by Prewitt (1970), each of them gathering personal “qualities” working as eligibility criteria for an elected position: “ethical”, “technocratic”, “pragmatic”, “political”, and “gender” models; these models/ clusters of qualities are applied to the six case-studies, in order to identify the predominance of a certain of these models to the manner in which both the selectorates and the candidates themselves see the selection and the importance of certain personal “qualities” (skills) in this process.
Based on the analysis of the recruitment variables involved in the process of selecting the members of the Municipal Councils, this study constructs a four-fold typology of political recruitment at the local level: (a) “extramural” selection, with no party selection; (b) “extramural” selection, with a significant role of the national branch; (c) “intramural” selection, locally dominated, with a less significant role of the national branch; and (d) “intramural” selection, with a significant role of the national branch. This typology is primarily connected to an exogenous variable, the level of administrative decentralization. Consequently, this paper tries to assess to what extent “extramural” selection is characteristic for decentralized municipalities, and to what extent the influence of the national branch of the party actually increases in less decentralized cases.
Acknowledgement: Writing this paper was possible due to financial support provided by „Entrepreneurial Education and Professional Counseling for Social and Human Sciences PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers to ensure knowledge transfer” Project, co-financed from European Social Fund through Human Capital Programme (ATRiUM, POCU/380/6/13/123343).
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