Heinrich Best

Ulrike Becker

"Who rules in Eastern Europe?" became a fundamental question for western researchers and other observers after communist regimes were established in the region, and it gained further importance as state socialism expanded into Central Europe after the Second World War. A political order which, according to Leninist theory of the state and to subsequent Stalinist political practice, was primarily a highly centralised and repressive power organisation, directed, as if it were natural, researchers attention towards the highest echelon of office holders in party and state. Extreme centralisation of power in these regimes was consequently linked to an elitist approach to analysing them from a distant viewpoint. It is one of the many paradoxes of state socialism, that a social and political order which presumptuously claimed to be the final destination of historical development and to be based on deterministic laws of social evolution, which claimed an egalitarian nature and denied the significance of the individual, was per ceived through the idiosyncrasies, rivalries and personal traits of its rulers. The largest part of these societies remained in grey obscurity, onlyoccasion ally revealing bits of valid information about a social life distant from the centres of power. It is debatable whether this top-headedness of western re search into communist societies created a completely distorted picture of re ality, however, it certainly contributed to an overestimation of the stability of these regimes, an underestimation of their factual diversity and a misjudge ment of the extent of conflicts and cleavages dividing them.

Elite Research in Central and Eastern Europe

Elites in Transition

John Higley

This handbook presents a comprehensive view of the current theory and research surrounding political elites, which is now a pivotal subject for academic study and public discourse. In 40 chapters by leading scholars, it displays the field’s richness and diversity. The handbook is organized in six sections, each introduced by a co-editor, focusing on theories about political elites, methods for studying them, their main structural and behavioral patterns worldwide, the differentiation and integration of political elite sectors, elite attributes and resources, and the dilemmas of political elites in this century. Forty years since Robert Putnam’s landmark Comparative Study of Political Elites, this handbook is an indispensable resource for scholars and students engaged in the study of this vibrant field.

The Palgrave Handbook of Political Elites

Köln> Computer Conference

Achievements of the 1980s, prospects for the 1990s. Proceedings of the Cologne Computer Conference 1988 uses of the computer in the humanities and social sciences held at the University of Cologne, September 1988

Computers in the humanities and the social sciences

Maurizio Cotta

This book contributes to a better understanding of relations between social and political change, and the importance of institutional factors in shaping the political elites of European democracies. It helps to substantiate theoretical debates in the social and political sciences on issues such as historical institutionalism and path dependency.

Diversity, Change, and Convergence

Democratic Representation in Europe

Arnaud F. Marks

Social Science Information Needs and Provision in a Changing Europe : Proceedings of a European Conference in Berlin, November 11th-13th, 1994

Social Sciences in Transition

György Lengyel

Luca Verzichelli

The Europe of Elites is the first comprehensive study about how European political and economic leaders think and feel about Europe and about what course future European integration should take.

A Study Into the Europeanness of Europe's Political and Economic Elites

The Europe of Elites

Heinrich Best

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