Einheit der Eliten? Die Transformation ostdeutschen Entscheidungspersonals zwischen Divergenzvermutungen und sich annähernden Professionalisierungsmustern

Jaeck, Tobias; Harm, Katrin; Aderhold, Jens

doi:10.1007/s11609-013-0221-8

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…This led to the recognition of the cultural factor, of non-Western potential and of multivariant, open-ended, own-logical developments (Waschkuhn and Thumfart 1999, 15-18;Kollmorgen 2001). Despite some exceptions (Damskis et al 1996;Damskis 1997), this mostly did not prevent elite researchers from using the West German situation as the benchmark for assessing the development of East German elites (Maier and Schmitt 2008;Jaeck et al 2013). More recently, in reaction to critical assessments of the state of democracy in East Germany, the focus of elite research has shifted to the issue of the underrepresentation of East Germans in Germany's national elite (Kollmorgen 2021;Vogel 2017;Vogel 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Question of Legacies: Socialist Elites in Post-Socialist Transformations—East Germany’s Elites from a Comparative Perspective (1990–2020)

Cordes,

Felde,

Pleines

2023

Studies in Economic Transition

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Today’s knowledge about elites in East Germany since 1990 is still shaped by the convergence perspective, which implicitly defines West Germany as the benchmark of desired development. In this contribution, we challenge existing assumptions by changing the reference frame. To do so, we compare a sample of office holders in politics and the economy (1990–2020) in East Germany with corresponding elite members in selected countries of Eastern Central Europe (N = 2439). We differentiate between two groups within the elite of East Germany defined by the place of their socialisation prior to 1989, which happened either in East Germany or in West Germany. We consider their political learning process, professional background as well as their age and gender. While East Germany’s regional elites are, in many aspects of their social profiles, very similar to the national elites in East Central Europe, our analysis also identifies important differences. Moreover, we argue that for a better understanding of political elites the question of political socialisation and experience should be at the centre of further investigation.

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confidence: 99%