Maurizio Cotta

Political Elites and a Polity in the Making: The Case of the EU

This paper is devoted to an exploration of some aspects of this relationship through an analysis of the process of European integration. By analyzing the institutional transformation brought about by the Lisbon treaty, the attitudes of national elites toward the European form of government, and the impact of the recent crisis on the European institutions, the article tries to establish the role of elites in the development of a supranational polity, and to ascertain what influence institutional transformations have had on the formation of a genuinely European elite.

Southern Europe: a Distinctive and More Pro-European Region in the EU?

The main aim of this article is to show to what extent it is possible to talk about the South European member states as a homogeneous region with respect to the topics of European citizenship addressed in this special issue. In particular, we will address this problem by exploring both the level of homogeneity of the attitudes developed by national elites within this area, and the level of distinctiveness of such attitudes compared with the pan-European trend.

Italy: Sunset of a Partitocracy

Between 1992 and 1994 the Italian political system went through a major crisis which directly affected the actors discussed in this book and the relationships between them. Writing in the immediate aftermath of the ‘revolution’ obviously creates special problems. First, the past looks more ‘past’, that is to say, less relevant for understanding the present than in other cases. Second, the ‘new’ is difficult to evaluate accurately and there are still serious doubts as to whether the new rules of the game will be consolidated. On the other hand, the crisis of the ‘old regime’ exposed to public scrutiny a significant part of the less visible side of politics, thus rendering easier the understanding of some political phenomena. Moreover, the opportunity to compare within the same country (that is other things being equal) different ‘regimes’ or, more accurately, the ‘old regime’ in its full strength, the transitional phase of its fall, and the emerging new phase provides a basis for a better understanding of the characteristics of politica11ife. Finally, when the regime of party dominance was in full swing, its strengths were naturally underlined and the control exercised by the parties over all political processes was stressed; the abrupt crisis and breakdown of the regime leads to questions being raised also about its weaknesses.

Beyond Party Government? Technocratic Trends in Society and in the Executive

This book proposes to analyse, in a sample of European countries, the weight of technocracy in governments with the ambition of providing, in the first place, an accurate mapping of the phenomenon and, secondly, to explore some of the potential explanatory factors of its growing presence in Political Leadership. Our study concentrates its attention on Europe for three main reasons: First, this is the region of the world where party government has found its fullest development, but also where the party systems generated by the recent waves of democratization have been considered as substantially weaker. Secondly, Europe is the region where the parliamentary form of government is the most diffuse, but also where, in recent times, semi-presidential forms of governments have proliferated. Thirdly, Europe has seen with the EU, the development of a particularly strong form of multi-level governance. There are thus good reasons for an in-depth exploration of cabinet recruiting patterns in this area of the world.

Technocratic Government Versus Party Government? Non-partisan Ministers and the Changing Parameters of Political Leadership in European Democracies

Who governs democratic regimes? The empirical analyses presented in this book provides a fairly clear answer to the question we raised in this book. The cabinets of these countries are composed by a majority of party-men and party-women, but also by a significant proportion of non-partisan technocrats. The recruitment of ministers is thus far more varied than the party government model expected.

Shades of Technocracy: The Variable Use of Non-partisan Ministers in Italy

This chapter deals with the phenomenon of technocratic ministers in a country where the ‘abdication’ of political parties from the key executive positions has been particularly manifest during the crises which have characterised the past three decades. However, this is not a totally new phenomenon: Non-partisan ministers had been appointed since the early decades of the Republic, when parties were strong and the coalition governance largely based on powerful partisan elites. The analysis demonstrates, therefore, a variety of reasons that have justified the appointment of different personalities, particularly from the bureaucratic elites, from the academic ranks and from the financial establishment. If the special case of the short-term ‘technocratic-led’ cabinets can be explained mainly by the presence of economic and political emergencies, the increasing number of non-partisan ministers in some specific key positions seems to be connected to the reduction of the scope and power of party machineries and to the process of personalisation of the executive, whose leaders proved more and more able to impose small ‘task forces’ of technocrats within the cabinet.

Political Elites Beyond the Nation State

The configuration of political elites reflects the basic configuration of the dominant political order. The prevailing nation- state model in the last two centuries has produced a nationalization of political elites. The weaknesses of the state model and the increasing importance today of international and supranational forms of governance have opened the space to new internationalized and supranational elites. Their configurations, patterns of recruitment and careers, resources, and their relationships with national elites are increasingly important topics to understand the functioning of contemporary politics.

Elite Dynamics and Dilemmas

However important or even decisive their role in politics, political elites have to face crucial dilemmas and challenges. Three dilemmas—time, space and institutional environment—are, so to say, systemic, that is, they have to do with some basic dimensions of the organization of political life itself. A fourth dilemma, concerning the relationship between collective elites and individual leaders, should also be considered. First, this chapter explores how and through which instruments the crucial problem for any elite of persistence over time is faced. It discusses then how elites are confronted with different models (national, sub-national, supra-national, and international) of the territorial organization of political life. Third, it analyzes the relationship between elites and institutional forms of politics and, finally, the interactions between the collective dimension of political elites and individual figures such as leaders who may emerge both from within elites and outside of them.