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What is the essence of the guild system of recruiting elites. Channels and systems for recruiting the political elite. The mechanism of formation of the political elite

Recruitment in political science refers to the process of selecting and promoting people into an active political life.

The systems of its recruitment (selection) have a great influence on the social representativeness, qualitative composition, professional competence and performance of the elite as a whole. Such systems determine: who, how and from whom selects, what are its procedures and criteria, the circle of the selectorate (persons carrying out the selection) and the motives for its actions.

There are two main systems for recruiting elites: guilds and entrepreneurial (entrepreneurial). In their pure form, they are quite rare. The entrepreneurial system prevails in democratic states, the guild system - in the countries of administrative socialism, although its elements are also widespread in the West, especially in the economy and the state-administrative sphere.

Each of these systems has its own specific features. So, the guild system is characterized by:

1) closeness, the selection of applicants for higher posts mainly from the lower strata of the elite itself, a slow, gradual path to the top. An example here is the complex bureaucratic ladder, which involves gradual advancement along the numerous steps of the service hierarchy; 2) a high degree of institutionalization of the selection process, the presence of numerous institutional filters - formal requirements for holding positions. These can be party affiliation, age, work experience, education, leadership characteristics, etc.;
3) a small, relatively closed circle of the selectorate. As a rule, it includes only members of a higher governing body or one first leader - the head of the government, firms, etc.;
4) selection and appointment of personnel by a narrow circle of managers, lack of open competition;
5) the tendency to reproduce the existing type of elite. In essence, this feature follows from the previous ones - the presence of numerous formal requirements, appointment to a position by top management, as well as a long stay of the applicant in the ranks of this organization.

The entrepreneurial system of recruiting elites is in many ways the opposite of the guild system. It is distinguished by: 1) openness, wide opportunities for representatives of any social groups to claim leadership positions; 2) a small number of formal requirements, institutional filters; 3) a wide range of electorate, which may include all the voters of the country; 4) high competitiveness of selection, sharpness of rivalry for occupying leadership positions; 5) the variability of the composition of the elite, the paramount importance for this of personal qualities, individual activity, the ability to find support from a wide audience, to captivate it with attractive ideas and programs.

This system appreciates prominent people. It is open to young leaders and innovations. At the same time, certain disadvantages of its use are the relatively high probability of risk and unprofessionalism in politics, the relatively weak predictability of politics, and the tendency of leaders to be overly fond of externalities. In general, as practice shows, the entrepreneurial system of recruiting elites is well adapted to the dynamism of modern life.

The guild system also has its pros and cons. Among its strengths are the balance of decisions, the lower degree of risk in their adoption and the lower likelihood of internal conflicts, the greater predictability of policy. The main values of this system are consensus, harmony and continuity. At the same time, the guild system is prone to bureaucratization, organizational routine, conservatism, the arbitrariness of the selectorate, and the substitution of formal selection criteria for informal ones. It breeds mass conformity and makes it difficult to correct mistakes and eliminate shortcomings initiated from below. Without the addition of competitive mechanisms, this system leads to the gradual degeneration of the elite, its separation from society and its transformation into a privileged caste.

Actually, this is what happened in the countries of administrative socialism, where for many decades the nomenklatura system of recruiting the political elite dominated - one of the most typical variants of the guild system. The essence of the nomenklatura system is the appointment of persons to any socially significant leadership positions only with the consent and recommendation of the relevant party bodies, in the selection of the elite from above.

In the USSR, for example, the negative social consequences of the functioning of this system were intensified by its comprehensive nature, the complete elimination of competitive mechanisms in the economy and politics, as well as the ideologization, politicization and non-potization (dominance of family ties) of selection criteria. Such criteria were complete ideological and political conformism (“political maturity”), partisanship, personal devotion to higher leadership, servility and flattery, family ties, ostentatious activism, and so on. These and other similar norms-filters sifted out the most honest and capable people, disfigured the personality, gave rise to a mass type of gray, ideologically notorious worker, incapable of genuine initiative, who sees only personal benefit in occupying leadership positions.

The long-term destructive impact of the nomenklatura system, as well as the destruction in wars and camps of the color of the people, their best representatives, led to the degeneration of the Soviet political elite. The situation did not change even after the liquidation of the power of the CPSU, since in Russia, unlike many countries of Eastern Europe, no influential, truly democratic counter-elite capable of effective leadership society.

recruiting elite political

Under recruiting in political science is understood the process of selecting and promoting people to active political life . A significant place among the various levels of the recruiting process is the recruitment of the elite. The formation of the elite in each specific country at each specific stage of its development is notable for its significant originality. There are, however, general patterns in the process of people entering the ruling group. Channels are universal for all countries recruiting elites - those social institutions, entry into which gives people the opportunity to achieve power.

These include:

Political parties. Their role is especially great in the Western European states, where an applicant for entry into the elite must go through all the steps of the party hierarchy. This is how M. Thatcher, F. Mitterrand, G. Koll and those politicians who today replaced them in key government posts did their careers.
bureaucracy. A significant proportion of officials can be traced in the elite of all developing countries, as well as such highly developed countries as Japan and Sweden.
Church and church religious organizations. This recruiting channel is more typical for Spanish countries and countries with a strong influence of Catholicism.
Unions. Trade union leaders play a prominent role in the political elites of many countries. Former US President R. Reagan and ex-president Poland L. Walesa "entered big politics" as leaders of trade union movements.
Economic institutions, business sphere.
Army. The influence of this factor is especially great in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The last three prime ministers of Israel are military generals.
Education system plays essential role In all countries. According to British political scientists, this country is ruled exclusively by people who graduated from Oxford or Cambridge and have one or two higher education, more often legal and economic. The American establishment (this term is used in the US to refer to the ruling elite) usually consists of graduates from universities belonging to the so-called "Ivy League", including Harvard, Wales and Prestonsky.

The basic systems for recruiting the elite are also universal. recruiting system - this is a mechanism for the formation and reproduction of the elite, which includes the criteria, order and circle of persons who carry out the selection. In the most general view ideas about the recruiting system in the form of democratic and aristocratic tendencies were formulated by G. Mosca. Modern science interprets them as entrepreneurial system and guild system.

The system of guilds provides for a closed and non-competitive nature of the selection, which is carried out by a rather narrow circle of people (selectorate), the slow progress of candidates up to power. The selection is carried out according to certain (very limited) social groups or parties. Many formal requirements are put forward regarding candidates, designed to confirm not so much their competence as loyalty to the higher authorities. The renewal of the elite is preached and irregular. This type of elite formation is characteristic of traditional societies (elite - caste in ancient india, elite - aristocracy in medieval Europe). In the XX century. The system of guilds manifested itself most clearly in totalitarian (the elite of the CPSU in the USSR) and authoritarian (the elite - a corporation in Chile, Iran) political systems. The extreme expression of the guild system was the nomenklatura method of forming the elite in former USSR. The elite was selected from above, taking into account the recommendations of party organs, social origin, party membership, and declared loyalty to the official ideology.

With an entrepreneurial system, the selection is open, competitive, carried out by a large circle of people (ideally, by the entire population through elections) and from groups of different positions. There is a trend of regular renewal of the elite. The selection criteria are guided, first of all, by the personal qualities of the candidate, his ability to attract the attention of people, his ability to prove his competence.

The use of each of the systems can have ambiguous consequences both for the elite itself and for society as a whole. Thus, the system of guilds, on the one hand, forms a homogeneous elite, ensures the predictability and continuity of the political course. But, on the other hand, its long-term use leads to the separation of the elite from society to its aging: bureaucratization, and as a result, to the degeneration of the ruling group and its loss of the ability to manage society. The entrepreneurial way of recruiting the elite, which is characteristic of modern democratic societies, ensures the dynamism and flexibility of the elite, a more complete legitimization of its power. But this system has its drawbacks.

The most important are:

instability of the internal structure of the elite, the possibility of conflicts between its various segments;
frequent change of political course due to the lack of unity in the views of different politicians;
the risk of populism, the possibility of random people coming into politics, not so much competent as well-known.

These methods of recruiting are largely reference. In reality, there is neither a pure entrepreneurial system nor a pure guild system, because there are no absolutely open and absolutely closed societies. On the one hand, any closed system provides for the presence of channels that allow representatives of the "lower classes" to come to power. An example would be the party's role as a recruiting channel within the USSR. So in 1986, according to sociological data, among the members of the CPSU, the proportion of people from the lower strata reached 90%. On the other hand, any open (democratic) system experiences a constant desire of elite groups to self-isolate. Throughout the 20th century in democratic states, within the framework of the political elite, people from the upper strata of the population predominated. For example, in 1993, out of 435 members of the US House of Representatives, 31% were businessmen, 19% were professional politicians. The same groups of one hundred members of the Senate made up 27% and 12%, respectively. It is obvious that replenishing the elite from representatives of the lower strata of society in such a situation becomes quite difficult. Cases like the nomination of M. Thatcher (daughter of a small merchant) to the first role in the leadership of Great Britain are rather rare cases than a pattern. True, high birth does not guarantee a successful political career and significant political influence. Thus, the House of Lords of the British Parliament, which consists of a hereditary aristocracy, is not an institution that has a real political influence. More ambitious politicians are trying to make themselves known through the House of Commons by going through the election process. The question of the social representation of the political elite of a democratic society remains open. As Western political scientists note, in the parliaments of Great Britain, Germany, France, among the deputies from the Labor and Socialist parties, it is not workers and farmers who dominate, but trade union leaders who have become professional politicians. On the contrary, half of the deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were represented by workers and peasants. But at the same time, the representative body of power itself met for less than four weeks a year to make decisions that were made in the Politburo of the CPSU. This practice called into question the question of the real participation of representatives of the people in legislative activity. Many modern political scientists share the position that the legislature should not directly reflect the entire social composition of the population. The main thing, in their opinion, is the competence of politicians, which allows making effective regulatory decisions in the interests of all sectors of society. Social representation was transformed into organizational affiliation - joining parties, social movements, trade unions. It is through these structures that the most active representatives of the lower strata of society can be recruited into the political elite and defend the interests of their groups.

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Elite selection systems

The dependence of the dynamics of the development of society on the effectiveness of political decisions taken by the elite also requires careful selection for the performance of power and management functions. In Western countries, politics has long turned into profession therefore, serious attention is paid to the process of preparation and selection for the elite. The most important are the following questions: how and from whom is the selection carried out, who performs it, what criteria should a candidate for a managerial position meet?

In various countries, systems of selection and recruitment of the elite, inherent only to them, have developed. There are two such systems: entrepreneurial and system guilds. Of course, the selection of these systems is conditional, since in practice their various combinations are used. However, the predominance of elements of one or another recruiting system makes it possible to judge the current selection mechanism.

Entrepreneurial (entrepreneurial) system

She is oriented towards personal qualities of the candidate, his ability to please people. Under such a system, the selection of candidates for positions of power is carried out from groups of society that differ in their property status. The system is characterized by openness, democracy, a limited number of filters, i.e. formal requirements that the candidate must meet. The entrepreneurial system involves intense competition between candidates for leadership positions. In the competitive struggle, each candidate must rely, first of all, on his own ingenuity, wit, and activity. the selectorate, those. the selector, in this case, is the entire adult population. Therefore, the entrepreneurial system is common in stable democracies. In the entrepreneurial system not are of no particular importance professional competence candidate, nor the quality of his education. It is well adapted to the requirements of the time, the moment. For example, US President R. Reagan began his career as a film actor, not as a professional politician, and had neither a legal, nor an economic, nor a political science university education. However, this did not prevent him from becoming one of the most popular presidents of post-war America.

The most significant disadvantage Entrepreneur selection system is the possibility of coming into politics random individuals, adventurers, capable of producing only an external effect. The predictability of the behavior of candidates after they become representatives of the elite is weak. In addition, under the entrepreneurial system, the degree of heterogeneity of the elite is high, the possibility of conflicts within it.

Guild system

This system of selection involves the slow progress of the candidate up the ranks of power, which is associated with many formal requirements for an applicant for a leadership position (level of education, party experience, experience working with people). The selection of candidates is carried out from certain social groups (estates, classes, castes, clans, etc.) or parties. The recruiting system is closed. The selection of candidates is carried out by a narrow circle of leading workers of the party, movement, corporation. The guild system is very conservative there is no competition in it, so it tends to reproduce one type of leaders, dooming the elite to gradual extinction, turning into a closed caste. Nevertheless, this selection system ensures a high degree of predictability in politics and reduces the possibility of conflicts within the elite. Elements of such a system are also characteristic of democratic countries where there are parties with a strong structure: strict party discipline, fixed membership, and so on.

The effectiveness of the activities of the political elite depends not only on the system of its recruitment, but also on the political orientation of its members, the degree of support from the population, the social origin and party affiliation of the elite. In Western countries, the elite is usually represented by people from those groups of the population who have a high social status (wealthy classes), university education. It also includes representatives of workers and farmers.

Nomenclature system

This is a special kind of guild system. It was widespread in the countries of socialism. Its peculiarity was that the replacement of key positions in all areas public life carried out only by party organizations of a certain level. The paradox is that Marxism denies elitism and elites in a socialist society as a manifestation of inequality. However, in practice, in the USSR and other socialist countries, a system of power was created, based, however, not on economic, but on political inequality.

As M. Djilas noted, the Soviet nomenklatura elite had a rigid hierarchy (subordination). All nomenklatura positions were divided into 14 ranks. The highest level of the party-state pyramid was occupied by the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, followed by members of the Politburo of the Central Committee, candidates for members of the Politburo and secretaries of the Central Committee, etc. The meaning of the hierarchical construction of the nomenclature was that the candidate consistently rose from step to step. With such a system, serious conflicts within the elite were excluded, the continuity of the political course was ensured, and the reproduction of one type of leadership. At the same time, this system cultivated the personal devotion of the candidate to the leadership, servility, ostentatious activity, etc. Therefore, over time, capable, talented and independent people were less and less allowed to power by the system.

Cm.: Sharan P. Comparative Politics. M., 1992.

Page 4

In political science, there are two main systems for recruiting the elite: guilds and entrepreneurial.

The distinctive features of the guild system are: 1) closeness, the selection of applicants for higher posts mainly from the lower strata of the elite itself; slow, evolutionary way up; 2) a high degree of institutionalization of selection, the presence of numerous institutional filters - formal requirements for holding positions (age, gender, party membership, etc.); 3) a small, relatively closed circle of the selectorate (people who select personnel); 4) the tendency to reproduce an already existing type of leadership.

The nomenklatura system of recruiting the political elite is one of the most typical variants of guilds, which is characterized by a lack of competition, excessive ideologization, politicization, and growing nepotism (dominance of family ties).

The entrepreneurial system is characterized by: 1) openness, wide opportunities for representatives of various social groups to apply for a place in the elite; 2) a small number of institutional filters; 3) a wide range of selectors; 4) high competition and paramount importance of the applicant's individual qualities.

Each selection system has its pros and cons. If the entrepreneurial system is more adapted to the dynamism of modern life, then the guild system is prone to bureaucratization and conservatism. In the first - a greater degree of risk, in the second - a greater balance in decision-making, a lower probability of internal conflict, there is a desire for consensus and continuity.

The ruling elite is heterogeneous and has a complex structure. The constituent elements of the structure of the ruling elite are:

ü economic elite - large owners owning industrial companies, banks, trading firms, etc.;

ü political elite - persons holding the highest positions in civil or military authorities;

ü bureaucratic (administrative) elite;

ü ideological, "informational" elite - leading representatives of science, culture, religion, education, mass media.

On the basis of the volume of power functions, the highest, middle and administrative political elites are distinguished.

The highest political elite includes leading political leaders and those who occupy the highest positions in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government (the immediate environment of the president, prime minister, speaker of parliament, heads of state authorities, leading political parties, deputy factions in parliament) . This is a numerically limited circle of people (100-200 people) who make the most significant political decisions for the whole society, concerning the fate of millions of people.

The average political elite is formed from a huge number of elected officials: parliamentarians, senators, deputies, governors, mayors, leaders of various political parties, social and political movements, etc.

The administrative elite (bureaucratic) is the highest stratum of civil servants (bureaucrats) occupying the highest positions in ministries, departments and other government bodies.

The level of elite circulation is varied. According to German scientists, its average level can only be spoken of in relation to the bureaucratic and partially political elite (ministers, leading figures in parliament); the economic elite is characterized by a low level of circulation.

The only reason for leaving the ranks of this elite is death, for the leaders of political parties - death and - less often - retirement due to old age. Under a totalitarian system of government, changes in the ruling elite are carried out only through the elimination of its individual representatives or as a result of the complete collapse of the entire system.

Of paramount importance from the point of view of the functioning of the ruling elite is the nature of the relationship between its individual groups. A study of them convinces us that the complex structural composition of the elite does not exclude a high degree of its cohesion. All elite groups are interested in the preservation and normal functioning of the existing social system. All of them in their own way represent the interests of those social strata with which they are connected by countless threads. Most of them are characterized by a commonality of traditions, habits, views, ideas and the entire system of values. Many of them are united by personal and sometimes family ties.

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What is the essence of the guild system of recruiting elites. Channels and systems for recruiting the political elite. The mechanism of formation of the political elite

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