Who Governs Southern Europe?: Regime Change and Ministerial Recruitment, 1850-2000 (Special Issue of the Journal South European Society & Politics)

236 Pages·2003·1.78 MB·English

by  PEDRO TAVARES DE ALMEIDA

WHO GOVERNS SOUTHERN EUROPE?
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WHO GOVERNS
SOUTHERN EUROPE?
Regime Change and Ministerial
Recruitment, 1850–2000
Editors
PEDRO TAVARES DE ALMEIDA
ANTÓNIO COSTA PINTO
NANCY BERMEO
FRANK CASS
LONDON (cid:127) PORTLAND, OR
First published in 2003 in Great Britain by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Who governs Southern Europe?: regime change and
ministerial recruitment, 1850–2000.—(Special issue of the
journal South European Society and Politics; v. 7, no. 2,
Autumn 2002) 1. Cabinet officers—Europe, Southern—History—19th
century 2. Cabinet officers—Europe, Southern—History—
20th century 3. Elites (Social sciences)—Europe, Southern
—History—19th century 4. Elites (Social sciences)—
Europe, Southern—History—20th century 5. Europe,
Southern—Politics and government—19th century 6. Europe,
Southern—Politics and government—20th century
I. Almeida, Pedro Tavares de II. Pinto, Antonio Costa
III. Bermeo, Nancy Gina, 1951—IV South European society &
politics
352.2′93′094
ISBN 0-203-49966-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-58282-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0 7146 5335 7 (cloth)
ISBN 0 7146 8277 2 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Who governs Southern Europe?: regime change and ministerial
recruitment, 1850–2000/editors, Pedro Tavares de Almeida, Antonio
Costa Pinto, Nancy Bermeo.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7146-5335-7 (cloth)—ISBN 0-7146-8277-2 (pbk.)
v
1. Europe, Southern-Politics and government. 2. Elite (Social
sciences) 3. Power (Social sciences) 4. Spain-Politics and
government. 5. Portugal-Politics and government. 6. Italy-Politics
and government. 7. Greece-Politics and government. I. Almeida, Pedro
Tavares de. II. Pinto, António Costa. III. Bermeo, Nancy, Gina, 1951–
D974.W5 2003
2003007391
This group of studies first appeared in a Special Issue on ‘Who Governs Southern
Europe? Regime
Change and Ministerial Recruitment, 1850–2000’ of South European Society &
Politics
(ISSN 1360-8746) 7/2 (Autumn 2002) published by Frank Cass.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or
introduced into a
retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher of this
book.
Contents
Preface 1
Portuguese Ministers, 1851–1999: Social Background and Paths 4
to Power
Pedro Tavares de Almeida and António Costa Pinto
Ministers and Regimes in Spain: From the First to the Second 38
Restoration, 1874–2002
Juan J.Linz and Miguel Jerez with Susana Corzo
Ministers in Italy: Notables, Party Men, Technocrats and Media 1 09
Men
Maurizio Cotta and Luca Verzichelli
Ministerial Elites in Greece, 1843–2001: A Synthesis of Old 1 43
Sources and New Data
Dimitri A.Sotiropoulos and Dimitris Bourikos
Ministerial Elites in Southern Europe: Continuities, Changes and 1 91
Comparisons
Nancy Bermeo
Abstracts 2 13
Notes on Contributors 2 16
Index 2 18
Preface
In modern polities, Cabinet ministers are major actors in the arena of
power as they occupy a strategic locus of command from which vital,
authoritative decisions flow continuously. Who are these uppermost policy-
makers? What are their background characteristics and credentials? How
are they selected and which career pathways do they travel in their ascent
to power?
This set of research issues, commonly raised in elite studies, has guided
the present collection of essays, which provides the first comprehensive,
empirical account of the composition and patterns of recruitment of
ministerial elites in Southern Europe throughout the last 150 years, thus
encompassing different historical circumstances and political settings—
liberal, authoritarian and democratic. In spite of their national specificities,
the four countries examined here (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) share
some basic structural and cultural features as well as similar experiences in
their political development, namely as regards regime change. The aim of
this volume is to assess how and to what extent different regime types and
modes of transition have propelled elite transformation in such countries,
and to scrutinize national similarities and differences, in order to identify
major trends and variations over time and across space.
For each country study, national experts were asked to address three
main topics. First, to define the periodization and nature of major regime
changes, underlying the principal factors potentially affecting political
recruitment and, more specifically, providing quantitative information on
the size of the ministerial elite, Cabinet duration, the length of ministerial
careers and the mobility through ministerial portfolios.
Second, to outline the social profile of the entire group of ministers in
each period, and to single out the main changes and continuities over time.
Resorting to techniques of collective biography, the following principal
background variables are explored, as systematically as possible: place of
birth (or residence), age, gender, educational credentials (academic degrees,
fields of study, universities attended), and occupational training and status
(public versus private employment). Social origins are also appraised, albeit
in more qualitative terms.
2 WHO GOVERNS SOUTHERN EUROPE?
Lastly, to examine the political cursus honorum of Cabinet beginners,
explaining how different institutional frameworks and political
environments have changed the opportunity structures and the rules of the
selection process. Particular attention is paid to parliamentary, local
government and top bureaucratic careers, which are often strategic
springboards to ascend to a ministerial position, as well as to the role
played by political parties, secret societies (for example, Masonry) and
organized interest groups. In the context of democratic regimes, the study
examines how the ideological diversity of parties explains contrasts in the
background characteristics and political careers of ministers. Moreover, the
importance of informal networks (family ties, schoolmate solidarities,
clientelistic bonds) is also highlighted.
In short, the expected outcome of this research agenda is to determine
what kind of attributes, skills and experiences have provided an
advantageous position for entering the ministerial elite over time. To allow
both historical and cross-national comparisons, common standards for
data aggregation were established and, whenever possible, implemented.
The field of political elite studies has a long and rich tradition—its
intellectual history, major findings and controversies are to be found in a
number of reappraisals, the most stimulating one still being Robert Putnam’s
The Comparative Study of Political Elites (1976). Yet, as it was pointed
out a few years ago by Samuel J.Eldersveld in his book Political Elites in
Modern Societies (1989:xi), ‘despite the assumed importance of political
elites, there has been rather limited empirical research until lately, and very
few comparative empirical studies of elites’. The panorama has changed,
however, in the last two decades, and several relevant, empirically
grounded collective works, with a longitudinal and comparative
perspective, and focusing on different groups of political rulers were
produced or are under preparation, thus enabling a better understanding of
key issues in elite recruitment in a variety of national contexts and, through
it, of the changing character of power structures in modern societies.
Among such studies, we should mention the volumes on The Profession of
Government Minister in Western Europe (1991), edited by Jean Blondel
and Jean-Louis Thiébault, and on Parliamentary Representatives in Europe,
1848–2000 (2000), edited by Heinrich Best and Maurizio Cotta, both of
them being fruitful sources of inspiration for our own research agenda.
Following this trail of rich empirical elite studies, the present collection of
essays fills a gap in the existing litterature, enlarging our knowledge on
political elites in Southern Europe and providing solid foundations for
further investigations.
* * *
This volume has its origins in the research project ‘Regime Change and
Ministerial Elite Transformation in Southern Europe, 19th– 20th
centuries’, launched in 1999 and funded through the allocation of a grant
PREFACE 3
by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. In the two
following years, other institutions directly or indirectly supported the costs
of meetings within this project: the Luso-American Foundation for
Development, Lisbon; the Southern European Research Group (SERG),
Princeton University; and the Arrabida Summer University, Portugal.
The first preparatory meeting, devoted to the discussion of the research
design, gathered all collaborators at Princeton University, under the
auspices of SERG, in June 2000. We are most grateful to William Branson,
Edward Freedland and Philip Nord, who have helped us with their
comments and suggestions.
Some preliminary findings of the empirical research were discussed in the
roundtable ‘Who Governs Southern Europe?’, held at the Center for
European Studies (CES), Harvard University, in May 2001. We are deeply
indebted to Charles S.Maier, who was director of the CES at the time, and
Michael Baum, who was responsible for organizing the roundtable and is
the chairperson of the Portuguese Studies Program, for their generous
invitation and academic hospitality. Juan J.Linz was the discussant, and his
thoughtful comments were most valuable. We have likewise greatly
profited from the vivid interaction with the audience.
Our second meeting was held at the Arrabida Convent, nearby Lisbon,
under the auspices of the Arrabida Summer University, in September 2001.
The essays collected in this volume are revised versions of the papers
submitted there to collegial critique. In this workshop stimulating papers
presented by Jean Blondel and George Pagoulatos were also discussed, and
we have benefited from the helpful participation of Jan Pakulski.
We acknowledge the Centra de Estudos de História Contemporânea,
ISCTE, for institutional and logistic support. The Institute of Social
Sciences, University of Lisbon, provided funds that were indispensable to
complete the preparation of this volume. Finally, special thanks are due to
Stewart Lloyd-Jones, director of the Contemporary Portuguese History
Research Centre, University of Glasgow, who revised the English style of
the final manuscripts of the four case studies.
PEDRO TAVARES DE ALMEIDA
ANTÓNIO COSTA PINTO
NANCY BERMEO