German local politics: The importance of socialisation instances for the mediation of specific cultural capital. Paper for the RC28 Conference, Montréal, August 14-17, 2007: SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY (RC28) Authors: Dipl.-Soz. Christian Koll, Dr. Jens Aderhold Contact: Dipl.-Soz. Christian Koll Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg Institute of Sociology Emil-Abderhalden-Str. 07 06099 Halle (S.) Germany Tel.: 0049 345 552 4254 E-mail: [email protected]1
Transcript
German local politics: The importance of socialisation instances for the mediation of specific cultural capital.
Paper for the RC28 Conference, Montréal, August 14-17, 2007:
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND MOBILITY (RC28)
Authors: Dipl.-Soz. Christian Koll, Dr. Jens Aderhold
Contact: Dipl.-Soz. Christian Koll Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg Institute of Sociology Emil-Abderhalden-Str. 07 06099 Halle (S.) Germany
This contribution deals with the questions of how and why political and administrative elites “succeed” in the field of local politics in Germany.
Politics in general can be described as a field in which the decision making process is permanently influenced by the two conflicting modalities of action: competition and mediation between interests. In this context, political elites take over key positions and fulfil special functions of representation, regulation, and balancing of interests. In contrast to other political levels, the atmosphere in communal settings can be characterised as collaborative and cooperative. In general the elites act in a rather discourse- and consensus-oriented manner, which is reflected in concordant political patterns (Holtkamp 2003).
In this context, the question rises whether different socialisation patterns, as well as mobility and career patterns, can influence the ability of local political and administrative elites to cooperate, integrate by themselves into the political field, and participate in important decisions. At least three socialisation instances can be regarded as relevant for the mediation of specific cultural skills and orientations: families, occupational and political careers. Relating to this, the effects of these instances will be measured and compared by using a regression model. We will argue that due to the historic conditions in West and East Germany, the mentioned instances of socialisation during the course of life had different effects on the orientations of the local elites.
1. The logic of local politics in Germany: between competition and consensus
Action of political elites in general is affected by two opposing dictums: on the one hand, pluralistic, political interests have to be articulated by the political elites; on the other hand, decisions depend on majorities as well as on the ability of important actors to cooperate and to overcome conflicts. “The function of elites (in pluralistic systems) therefore is not only to articulate, aggregate and represent interests but to balance these interests. … [Elites] are individual agents as well as the instance of regulation of cooperation.” (Herzog: 1982: 23f.)
This logic is constitutive for the local political level in Germany too. The primary objective of local politics is the welfare of the community. Within the federal structure of a vertically and horizontally structured political system (Thumfart 2002: 601-608), cities and communities are authorised to autonomously handle several questions of infrastructure, social policy, and economy. This ultimately refers to a contradiction between representation and balancing of interests. Financial restrictions and a steady rise of duties and responsibilities additionally intensify the discrepancies (Bogumil 2005: 517).
This structure refers to questions of political conceptions and behavioural orientations of political actors in general, and elites in particular, and is discussed under keywords like competitive versus concordant patterns of the political culture. Especially under conditions of an increasing heterogeneity of interests, it can be assumed that the
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integration of elites in general depends on their ability to overcome sector-specific boundaries and rationalities (Nassehi 2004). Particularly with regard to the local political level in Germany, it is often argued that there would exist a “law of big coalitions”. This refers to orientations with a focus on results, shared by the majority of the political actors, which leads to concordant patterns (Grauhan 1971: 107 ff.; Lehmbruch 1991: 313). As a consequence, the competition between political parties decreases and actors tend to avoid personal conflicts.
2. Local political and administrative elites and the coherence of cooperation, integration and success
As mentioned before, the climate in the field of local politics and local self-administration in Germany is considerably characterised by cooperation, with a focus on a task-oriented, matter-of-fact, and cooperative working manner as well as by the avoidance of conflicts. Such conditions refer to political and administrative elites and a series of functions that they meet, as for instance pointed out by several theories on elites in general (Bourdieu 1985, Krais 2001), and political class and political elites in particular (Herzog 1982, Beyme 1993, Rebenstorf 1995, Golsch 1998). Especially political elites will be described as actors in the centre of political institutions.
Under formal aspects we can draw a distinction between the area of political and administrative actors. Thereby the elite positions can be regarded as a gateway between political and administrative sector. Formally, the local parliament and political elites are more important because they are responsible for local policies and make political decisions. The administrative elites have to transpose these decisions and guidelines. They are accountable to political actors. Actually, they merely have an indirect effect on local policies and political decisions because they prepare and provide information only. In the centre there are mayors or district administrators and heads of local departments on the one side, and chairmen of the local parliaments as well as the party leaders in the parliaments on the other side. With respect to this, elites can formally be identified by their positions and functions, which refers to the position approach of elite identification (Field and Higley 1983: 34).
To each position belongs a set of functions. Mayors and district administrators are the top-ranking officials, particularly with regard to the administration as well as the supreme representatives of the cities and communities. These positions represent the most important interface between political and administrative functions. The heads of the departments are responsible “only” for single areas. Due to their superintendence in their departments and their considerable autonomy concerning functional and factual decisions and power, they nevertheless can be regarded as elites. In contrast, the political elites exercise functions of control and articulation of citizen interests. Due to their outstanding positions within the parliament they can rather be considered to be representatives of their parties.
In practice, both elite types form a special structure of governance. Political problems and proposals will very often be discussed in committees and task groups, in addition to
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the official parliamentary debates. Within these structures the mentioned actors often hold key positions that not only provide access to information, but enable them to exert influence on the preparation of decisions. In this respect, the elites play an important role within the process of coordination, and participate in the decision making process in a specific manner. So the successful integration of elites depends on their abilities to: represent and push individual interests by taking the perspectives of the others into account, communicate from different positions, and anticipate and handle conflicts. The specific performance then consists in a behavioural orientation, which is directed towards a collaborative and “results-oriented” way of work. In short: elites have to be able to integrate into the political field by themselves by bridging the discrepancies resulting from different interests, orientations, and functions.
3. Professional competences, political interests and political experiences as specific versions of cultural capital
An effective and successful participation and integration within the above-described political culture depends on several conditions. Basically it can be assumed that similar backgrounds of the elites can facilitate communication and collaboration just as behavioural orientations and personal traits, or specific knowledge and experiences. Theoretically these aspects refer to socio-scientific concepts of human or cultural capital (e.g. Bourdieu 1983) and mobility or careers (Herzog 1975). According to this, the relationships between socialisation processes, stages in the course of life, and the acquirement of cooperative orientations by the elites will be of interest. Hence, one of the main questions is which socialisation instances can be regarded as relevant for (political) socialisation and how they mediated the acquirement of cultural capital during the careers and the course of life of the elites.
To answer that question, we distinguish several periods or instances of political socialisation in the course of life: primary socialisation through the family, and secondary socialisation processes mediated by occupational and political careers.
3.1 Family socialisation
Referring to both capital theories in general (e.g. Bourdieu), and ‘Political Socialisation Research’ in particular (e.g. Herzog), parental characteristics can be regarded as very important for the acquirement and mediation of behavioural orientations as well as political interest: “Foremost among agencies of socialization into politics is the family.” (Hyman 1969: 51) The main topics of the research traditions on political socialisation are the impact of family milieu on latent and manifest political socialisation and on the development of a “political” personality (Geißler 1996). This differentiation refers to both the intensity and the intentionality of political socialisation.
Latent or passive politicisation results considerably from un-designed mediation of values and depends on a general political awareness of the family. This refers to discussions about political issues as well as affirmative experiences with the expression
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of opinions. Furthermore, one can assume that the probability of politicisation increases with a rising political interest of the family.
The encouragement of social and political activities as well as the integration into family affairs in general, and political traditions of the parents in particular, can be regarded as a more directed or manifest kind of the mediation of political values. Thereby one has to take into account that due to the change of the relevance of political issues and traditions, an ideological rigidity, or identification with the “wrong” values, can result in dysfunctional effects: because the most modern parties in Germany are “catch-all-parties” their programs are rather undetermined and less specified. For that reason it seems to be more appropriate for political actors to remain “ideologically” flexible and adaptable (Herzog 1975: 168).
Questions concerning the political personality will be posed mostly with regard to democratic versus authoritarian orientations and attitudes. Persons with a higher authoritarian orientation are considered to descend from families where the parents played a rather dominating role in the unilateral implementation of behaviour rules and insistence on obedience. In contrast to this, in families of persons with less dominant authoritarian values, the breach of rules was more tolerated and conflicts were regulated consensually (Sanford 1973: 139-170).
In sum, these three dimensions suggest that the family can be considered to be an important instance for the mediation of cooperative orientations as well as political values and “soft skills” on which the cooperative and successful communication and acting of the elites can base.
3.2 Socialisation and occupational careers
Occupational milieus, experience, and careers will be regarded as a secondary socialisation instance. This refers not only to questions of professional education and stratification, and the affiliated economic resources, it is additionally related to attitudes as well as learning effects, mediated by professional mobility experiences.
Herzog (1975: 101ff.) discusses several relations between professional and political careers. Elites are in general highly educated and occupy higher professional positions. Due to the fact, that political elite positions at the local level in Germany are not very well paid, one of the main conditions for political engagement is a safe and stable professional position. Furthermore, professional positions indicate abilities and skills which are dependent on the position level as well as the kind of occupation. Particularly higher positions are considered to be more linked to social relations, negotiating skills as well as interests in communication in general (Herzog 1975: 105). This refers to the interconnection between professional success and styles of behaviour and personal traits, in correspondence with results from labour market research.
Stable careers are connected to feelings of safety (e.g. Goffee and Scase 1992), indicate success, and have a positive impact on social identity. Due to the change of labour market structures, mobility has increased and mobility patterns have become more
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complex. As a consequence, one’s commitment to organisations decreases, while their individual ideas about careers and professional success gain much higher importance.
Professional careers extend over a very long ranging span of life. For that reason, effects of experiences can change, disappear or cumulate. Apart from parents who influence professional interests by giving examples of professional perceptions and abilities, styles of interaction within families are important too: in particular a successful labour market entrance will be promoted by a cooperative and harmonious family climate (Baethge et al. 1988). However, it seems to be evident that the importance of the family background decreases over the years. Nevertheless, the general connection between attitudes and success remains quite stable in the later stages. For instance, people with a higher social orientation have better chances for a stable employment career during the transition from professional education systems to the labour market (Rimann et al. 2000). In the later stages of the professional career, the consolidation becomes more important. This is mostly accompanied with higher liability and conscientiousness against people (Finegold et al. 2002; Veiga 1983). In general it seems to be more appropriate to assume a reciprocal, interactive connection between attitudes, orientations, and professional success: professional mobility and the affinity, or ability, to cooperate and self-integrate intensify each other. Exactly for that reason, professional careers can be regarded as an important mediator of behavioural orientations and communication skills, or styles of interaction.
3.3 Socialisation and political careers
Despite the “non-political” or concordant character of the local political field, the holders of elite positions of course make politics: they represent and articulate interests, exercise control, and make decisions. Therefore, political parties and careers can be regarded as important socialisation instances for at least two reasons, (Herzog 1975: 62ff.) even if they have a lesser importance at the local level. Firstly, modern political parties offer positions and provide opportunities to gain experience and learn political skills. In this respect, political parties can be regarded as an instrument of the political advancement. Secondly, a successful political career within parties is linked to ideological and emotional commitment. Especially people with a higher advancement orientation show higher commitment to the party organisation.
Both of these considerations refer to the relation between political careers and the preferred concordant political behaviour, as well as between political knowledge and experiences. On the one hand a successful political career indicates abilities of the elites to mediate individual, party, and community interests, which is related to skills and orientations of collaboration and conflict handling. On the other hand it can be assumed that especially elites without party affiliation or political careers are at an advantage because they can act in a more oriented manner towards factual issues and results. In this regard, a too strong commitment to party programs or party politics may reduce the abilities to anticipate and balance differing interests.
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3.4 Historical and biographical backgrounds of West and East German elites
To sum up, the following model can illustrate the previous thoughts. Thereby it can be assumed that the importance of each socialisation instance may both change over the individual lifetime1 as well as vary between West and East Germany:
Fig. 1: Socialisation instances and the elite’s ability to cooperate
Family Socialisation: latent political socialisation manifest political socialisation democratic versus authoritarian
Occupational / professional career and mobility
Participation/Integration: Abilities and preferences to collaborate and cooperate
Political career and mobility
The passing of the mentioned socialisation instances refers to differences in the historical and institutional background of the elites in West and East Germany. In particular, this concerns different conditions and patterns of family education, job careers and mobility, and possibilities for political engagement and experiences.
Family socialisation
The political leadership of the former GDR tried to reduce the importance of the family on political socialisation (Geißler 1996: 62f.), especially if their political attitudes were not compliant to official ideology. Instead, political socialisation was considered to be a task of the state. Therefore, several institutions were created to form socialistic personalities (e.g. kindergarten, schools, youth organisations). One of the paradox results was the strengthening of families: in East Germany the social environment was much more strongly politicised and centralised. Under such conditions, parents could develop a much higher influence on the political interest and education of their children than in West Germany, where official spheres were less politicised, political interest was rather individualised, and the political culture in general was more pluralized. Additionally, the family in East Germany played an important role as a counter weight against state paternalism and control. For that reason, communication density and family orientation in general were much higher in East than in West Germany.
1 Some approaches about life course theory just focus upon this aspect. For instance they assume that family socialisation rather has an affect on education and labour market entrance. The later job career then depends more or less on the success especially at the beginning of the career. Those findings won’t be examined in this article.
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Occupational career and mobility
Mobility patterns at the labour markets in West and East Germany differed too. The advancement mobility in the GDR was strongly controlled and influenced by the state. Especially the occupation of higher and executive positions based upon ideological criteria like membership in the socialist party, and the correct political consciousness. Even worse, many executive positions were blocked after the mid-60’s. During the first decade after the foundation of the GDR, a lot of positions were taken by younger cohorts, whereupon the exchange of generations at the labour market decelerated. Additionally, inter-firm mobility was much lower. Very often the professional education, the entrance into the labour market, and the occupational career took place in only one company. In contrast to that, occupational mobility patterns in West Germany depended much more on market mechanisms and a meritocratic selection process, and the responsibility for advancement was rather individualised. Inter-firm mobility was in general higher and there were more occupational options and chances.
Political career and mobility
It is evident that the political system in East Germany was not a pluralistic one. The socialist party played the dominant role; other parties were officially sworn in the hegemonic ideology of the socialist system and the elite selection strongly depended on political loyalty. With the transition in East Germany, the former elites were not only exchanged, but in additional, many elite positions were abolished, and many were newly created. The political parties became independent from the hegemony of the state, and the importance of the socialist party substantially decreased. Due to these changes, the selection processes and career options within the political system in East Germany shifted rapidly and became decentralised. Especially in the first period of the transition, it was an advantage for careers to explicitly have no political experience. Meanwhile, the importance of parties as socialisation instances and as promoters of political careers has shifted and a development of catching up happened in East Germany. In that sense, the importance of political careers should be equal to West Germany, where political parties can be regarded as more established and play a more important role for selection processes of political elites.
4. Database, construction of indicators and empirical analyses
In sum, this article deals with the question of which socialisation instances mediate the orientations, abilities, and skills that enable elites to collaborate and integrate by themselves into decision-making processes in Germany, especially at the local political level. Concerning this matter, families, job careers, as well as political careers, can be regarded as influential and as important mediators of special sorts of cultural capital.
The analyses are based upon data of the political background and educational styles of the families as well as the occupational and political careers and pathways of holders of important administrative and political positions. In this respect, the elites were identified using the position approach: people, who occupy positions that enable them to make or influence important decisions, are defined as elites (Field and Higley 1983). To draw
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comparisons between East and West Germany and to take into factor different historical backgrounds, a telephone panel survey was conducted among elites in selected regions of West and East Germany. In our survey mayors or district administrators and heads of local departments represented administrative elites, and chairmen and the party leaders of the local parliaments were regarded to be political elites. The study includes all former and current holders of those positions since 1990 through 2006. The second wave of surveys was just finished.
In total we collected data from 171 political and administrative elite members in the large cities Cologne and Halle, the middle-sized cities Juelich and Dessau, and the counties Oberbergischer Kreis and Saalkreis in the two states North-Rhine-Westphalia for West Germany and Saxony-Anhalt for East Germany (Fig. 2). The response rate was 81% at the first wave; the response rate at the second wave was 76%.
Figure 1: Area under investigation
Nordrhein-Westfalen Sachsen-Anhalt
Fig. 2: Observed territories
The questionnaire queries all professional and political positions and functions since the elite’s age of 18 years as well as several other time-dependent areas throughout the lifetime of the elites, e.g. family status. Due to a great deal of missing data – in particular older people had problems remembering all information from their past – only 129 people could be included in the analyses (cf. table 1).
Tab. 1: Distribution of administrative and political elites by state North-Rhine-
The analyses of the influences of different socialisation instances and the ways on which cultural capital is mediated were completed in two steps. Initially, indices were
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constructed to represent both the affinity of the elites to collaborate – as an independent variable – and the ways of passing of different socialisation instances. All constructions are based upon cluster analyses to systematically include various information for each dimension and therefore to validate conclusions. The cross sectional variables were clustered by conventional ward method. To typify careers and courses we used the optimal-matching method, which enables the clustering of sequences of states. In a second step the importance of these indicators for the consensus orientation was measured by using a regression model. Details are described below.
4.1 Ranking of elite integration and consensus orientation
As mentioned before, the general behavioural orientations of elites can be allocated on a continuum, with competition and collaboration as extremities. Due to the concordant patterns of the political culture, especially at the local level, and the preferences of the elites to act “consensus-orientated,” a multidimensional index was created to measure and rank integration and participation. The ranking is based upon a cluster analysis taking the following variables into account: Tab. 2: Dimensions of elite integration
Dimension Items / Variables 1. Professional and factual collaboration; ability to balance interests
V1. How do you assess your collaboration with the other members of the local administration? V2. How do you assess your collaboration with the other members of the local parliament?
1..very well to 5..very poorly 2. Emotional ties to other elites
V3. Do you feel a special solidarity with the heads of the local departments? V4. Do you feel a special solidarity with the members of the local parliament?
0..yes to 1..no 3. Self-perception of being different to non-elites
V5. Do you perceive yourself as an elite member? 0..yes to 1..no
From those variables, 5 clusters were generated and ranked by the amount of integration afterwards. The lower the values are initially in one single dimension and subsequently in all dimensions, the higher the elites will be ranked by their integration (cf. table 3). At the top there are people with high values in all dimensions (cluster 1). An affinity to cooperate refers to both professional/factual and emotional aspects, which are equally high. Cluster 2 is generated from people who indeed show very high values at the factual orientation dimension. Due to lower values at the emotional and subjective dimensions, we assume that the integration is not as stable as in cluster 1. Cluster 3 aggregates people with average values at the factual cooperation dimension but consistently high emotional and subjective solidarity. Cluster 4 shows quite low values at both dimensions with the exception that solidarity with parliamentarians is high and the subjective perception as being different from other people is average. At the bottom there are elites with very low values at each dimension.
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Table 3: Means of the cluster variables and ranking of the clusters
Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4 Cluster 5
V1 1,9 1,6 2,2 3,2 2,4
V2 1,9 1,5 2,4 2,9 3,0
V3 0,1 0,1 0,0 0,9 0,7
V4 0,0 0,5 0,0 0,0 1,0
V5 0,0 0,7 1,0 0,6 0,5
Number of cases 36 15 37 24 17
Ranking of collaboration/integration
5 4 3 2 1
4.2 Modelling of family influence
Primary families can influence the general behavioural orientation as well as political orientation in three ways: indirectly and un-intended, directly and manifest and via influencing the personality development. Therefore, each of those dimensions has to be included into the analyses. Again, this was done by generating clusters (cf. table 4).
Tab. 4: Dimensions of family socialisation
Dimension Items / Variables 1. Latent political socialisation
V1: Did you participate in important familial decisions in your younger days? 1..very often thru 4..never
V2: How important were discussions about political topics and events in your family?
1..very important thru 4..very unimportant V3: How often did your parents include you into socio-political discussions?
1..very often thru 4..never 2. Manifest political socialisation
V4: Did your parents count themselves to a political milieu? 1..yes, 2..no
V5 (identical with V2): How important were discussions about political topics and events in your family?
1..very important thru 4..very unimportant V6: Did your parents encourage you to political engagement?
1..yes thru 3..no 3. Democratic vs. authoritarian educational style
V7: How often did your parents command you around? 1..never thru 4..very often
V8: What kind of strategy for solving conflicts did your parents prefer? 1..bilateral agreements, 2..unilateral enforcement
The dimension of latent mediation of political interests is represented by the variables “participation in familial decisions”, “political conversation within the family” and “integration into discussions”. The second dimension of a rather manifest mediation of political values and attitudes is represented by the variables “political tradition of the family”, “political conversation within the family” and “encouragement to political
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engagement by the parents”. The third dimension of educational styles is generated by the variables “rules in the parent’s house” and “parental handling of dissents”. At each dimension, 5 clusters were generated and ranked afterwards by the values of each single variable to specify the values of each single dimension (cf. table 5).
Table 5: Means of the cluster variables and ranking of the clusters for family socialisation
Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4 Cluster 5
Dimension 1: Degree of socio-political interest, latent mediation
V1: 1,4 1,5 1,5 3,4 3,3
V2: 1,0 2,2 2,9 1,8 3,2
V3: 1,2 1,5 3,2 2,7 3,1
Case number 23 48 20 14 21
Ranking/intensity 5..very high 4 3 2 1..very low
Dimension 2: Degree of political awareness; manifest mediation
V4: 1,0 1,0 1,3 2,0 2,0
V5: 1,6 1,7 3,1 1,8 3,2
V6: 1,0 2,4 1,5 1,7 2,2
Case number 38 23 20 20 26
Ranking/intensity 5..very high 4 3 2 1..very low
Dimension 3: Personality traits (rather democratic vs. authoritarian attitudes)
V7: 1,0 2,0 3,1 2,0 3,5
V8: 1,0 1,0 1,0 2,0 2,0
Case number 4 26 59 4 30
Ranking/intensity 5..rather democratic
4 3 2 1..rather authoritarian
4.3 Professional careers and mobility patterns
In chapter 3.2 it was argued that occupational mobility experiences can be taken as indicators for behavioural orientations which were learned and intensified within the career. For that reason, we ordered and ranked the careers by their occupational advancement patterns by using the optimal-matching-method, which allows for comparison of entire careers and generation of clusters depending on career patterns.
Excursus: The optimal-matching-method
The optimal-matching-method was introduced into social sciences by Andrew Abbott (Abbott & Forrest 1986). This method is actually derived from gene technology and is an explorative way to arrange and compare sequences of states. Besides the sequence, the duration of states is also considered to be important. This method focuses on entire chains and sequences of stages and states, whereas the life span will be interpreted as an
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endogenous causal connection (Mayer 1990). In that perspective it will be assumed that the process of careers has a “memory” resulting from all former states and events.
The clusters are generated by similarities. Therefore, distances of the sequences have to be measured: firstly, an algorithm compares all courses with each other, the distances are calculated by counting all steps and operations which are necessary to transform an original sequence into a target sequence. In principle, the procedure deletes every disparate state and inserts a new one. The total number of transforming operations is now pooled to clusters by using merging algorithms. Diagrams portray the visualisation of outputs. Each group or cluster can then be described by their general patterns of rates, duration and chronology of states.
The comparison of the professional careers is based on the variable job autonomy, which measures the level of an occupational or socio-economic status (Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik 1993). This information was calculated for all occupations of each person from their age of 16 till the last time point before they were recruited into an elite position. High single values are related to a high status, which refers to the above-mentioned abilities and skills, usually associated with leading positions. The values may range from 0 for no employment, through 5 for the highest status and autonomy. Additionally, a fast advancement as well as a long-lasting filling of jobs with a high autonomy can be taken as indicators for stable and successful career mobility.
Finally, five clusters resulted from the analysis, which were ranked depending on sequences and duration of states and levels. With respect to the assumption that a successful career is linked to the abilities of collaboration and self-integration, it can be assumed that higher advancement mobility with few interruptions indicates an affinity to social interaction, communication and negotiating skills. The cluster, general descriptions, as well as a typical example for each cluster are presented in table 6.
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Tab. 6: Types of career mobility at the labour market Cluster/ Rank
Case number
Description Example
1 12 - fast labour market entrance/short training phase
- relatively slow, but stable step by step career from level 1 thru 4
▒▓▓▓████▓█████████
2 39 - relatively short training phase - successful labour market entrance:
directly to level 4 with a very high continuance
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒███████████████████
3 16 - relatively short training phase - successful labour market entrance:
directly to level 4, sooner or later most people reach level 5
▒▒▒▒▒▒██▒████████████████
4 28 - relatively long-lasting training phase
- labour market entrance: very fast or direct step to level 5 with a high continuance at this position
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒██████████████
5 30 - relatively short training phase - direct advancement to level 5
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒█████████████████
Legend: ▒ 0..no employment ▓ 1..very little job autonomy
4.4 Political career types As mentioned in chapter 3.3, political careers indicate political behavioural orientations and mediate knowledge of the distribution of power and social networks in the political system. In this respect, political knowledge can be regarded as specific cultural capital, which is linked to the ability to mediate between individual, party and community interests.
The classification of the political careers is based again on an optimal-matching-analysis. Similar to occupational careers, an index for the political autonomy and importance of positions and offices within parties and parliaments was constructed. The values may range from 0 to 4 and depend on party affiliation as well as the importance of positions within organisational structures and on different the political levels. The value 0 is assigned to non-political states, party affiliation without engagement is rated with 1, and other political functions are rated up to 4 (e.g. position in the cabinet, executives or chairmen of parties at the national level). The sequences are composed from all party positions and mandates since the elite’s age of 18 until they were recruited into their elite position.
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From the analysis five career patterns resulted: elites without political experiences, elites with little and rather sporadic political engagement, elites with a career particularly at the local level, elites with experience and establishments both at local and national levels, and elites with experiences only at higher levels without any local establishment (cf. table 7). Tab. 7: Types of political careers Cluster Number
of cases Description Example
1 50 - without any political experiences or ambitions
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓
2 29 - rather local and sporadically engagement
- few political ambitions
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓██ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒
3 9 - long-lasting career at the local level - ambitions only in local contexts
▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓███████████ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓████████████
4 18 - longer lasting careers at different levels - higher political ambitions
▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓█████████▓▓███ ▒▒▒▓█████████████████
5 22 - longer lasting careers particularly at higher levels
- very high political ambitions
▒▒▒▒▒▒██████████████▓▓ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓███████████
Legend: ▒ 0..without political engagement ▓ 1..passive party affiliation without special engagement █ 2..engagement at the local political level (e.g. local positions, parliamentarian █ 3..engagement at higher levels or in more important positions (e.g. governing mayors, member of the parliament of a state , party chairmen in a state ) █ 4..political engagement at the national political level or in very important positions
Beyond political experience, the patterns provide information about the political ambitions of the people.2 So it can be assumed that in particular elites from cluster 1 and 2 do not show very pronounced ambitions for political advancement. They were either absolutely not engaged, or remained rather passive in their parties. Elites from cluster 3 have a quite ambivalent status: they are engaged at the local political level over a long period. In contrast to the fourth cluster they are obviously not interested in higher positions at national political levels. Hence, they can be regarded as elites with an exceptional orientation in local affairs, whereas the other elites are indeed tied with local politics but actually try to move away from it. In this sense they are not as strongly established as elites from cluster 3, but they need this level because it provides protection, for instance when they lose an election. In this regard the local level serves as a waiting room. Elites from cluster 5 have hardly been active in local politics. Due to this pattern, it can on the one hand be assumed that they are actually not interested in local affairs, which may result in difficulties in orientation towards communal reality. On the other hand, it is possible that despite their lack of local experience, they dispose of cultural resources which enable them to collaborate with others and to balance interests: the long-lasting filling of especially high political positions, which are usually 2 One important factor, that may influence the career patterns and chances are windows of opportunities. However, those aspects are not amplified here.
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associated with cooperative orientations and communicative abilities, may indicate a greater amount of this specific sort of cultural capital.
4.5 The influence of socialisation instances in West and East Germany
After their construction, the indicators can be introduced into a regression model (cf. figure 1). With respect to the different historical backgrounds, the model will be tested separately for West and East Germany. Furthermore, it distinguishes between political and administrative elites: due to their responsibility for only one department and their specialised expert knowledge, it can be assumed that administrative elites are less involved in political conflicts, and that it is easier for them to anticipate conflicts, to adopt a neutral position, and to act more factually. The results are displayed in table 8 (p. 17).
While the variables “integration and consensus orientation”, “family socialisation” and “occupational career” can be regarded as continuous, the political careers cannot simply be ranked to measure a socialisation effect. Due to the fact that each level is associated with a different logic of action and social orientations, it is more appropriate to have a separate look at each group and to include them into the model via dummy variables.
First of all it can be noticed that the model fit is much higher for East Germany (R² = .38) than for West Germany (R² = .17). This refers to varying effects and importance of socialisation instances under the different historical conditions mentioned above.
In general for holders of administrative positions, it seems to be easier to collaborate with others, to handle conflicts, and to integrate by themselves into decision making processes, which refers to the above mentioned institutional and functional differences between administration and politics: administrative elites are responsible for only one specific field; they “only” have to provide information and prepare decisions. In this respect, they are able to adopt neutral positions within political discussions. In contrast to this, political elites have to represent and balance manifold interests. Hence, they are rather bound to party directives and have to take political constraints and interests into account. This effect is especially strong in East Germany.
Family socialisation
Significant effects of the family are observable only in East Germany, which refers to the above-mentioned paradox effect: although it was intended to reduce the influence of families, it increased and is measurable yet. In contrast to this, parental mediation of cultural values and orientations in West Germany is negligible. Reasons for that might be a generally lower political interest in West Germany, a lower importance of family ties than in the GDR, and the additional importance of other socialisation instances like political education in peer groups and milieus at schools or universities.
At the first instance, the subtly mediation of a general political interest seems to decrease the ability to act in a consensus-oriented way. In contrast to this, a manifest political socialisation increases this ability. This result is probably related to specific circumstances of family education in the former GDR: The un-intended and less
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deliberated socialisation was not suitable to mediate a discerning political consciousness. For that reason the general political interest was rather uncritically and still to close connected to political values of the socialist state, which reduce the ability to anticipate other viewpoints and attitudes and to balance interests today. Unlike this, a manifest and intended mediation of political values and interest was probably geared towards rather traditional civil and humanistic values of the middle-class: Politically well-informed and interested parents rather rejected the official ideology and tried to educate their children to be reflective and critical. This background might be helpful now, to find a basis of cooperation with other elite members. This is also the case with people who come from families with a rather democratic educational style. Their ability to handle conflicts in a cooperative way is pronounced too, which helps in participation at the decision making process.
Occupational career and mobility
Occupational careers have the expected influence in West Germany, which may be caused by different mobility options and selection processes in both former German states. The central planning and political regulation suppressed the mechanisms of reciprocal reinforcement of behavioural orientations and occupational advancement. Hence career effects do not appear in East Germany yet.
Compared to all other variables, occupational mobility and experiences have the strongest influence on behavioural orientations of the elites. On the one hand, this refers to meritocratic characteristics of the selection process, which is consistent with the longer-present democratic tradition in West Germany: familial backgrounds as well as political ideology do not play important roles. Collaborative orientations are rather mediated by occupational mobility. On the other hand, careers signalise professional competence and capability. Hence professional success makes it easier to be honoured within interactions and decision-making processes within the political system.
Political career and mobility
In contrast to the other variables, political careers do not influence the ability to collaborate at all. Neither a long-lasting political engagement nor experiences at a particular political level seem to make a great difference. This can be regarded as an evidence that party affiliation and commitment to political parties or to ideological milieus especially in advanced years are not generally connected with positive or negative socialisation effects. Furthermore, this result is consistent with the assumption that especially in communal settings party politics do not play an important role. However, this does not exclude that the affiliation to particular parties or milieus can have an influence.
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Tab. 8: R-Square, regression coefficients (Beta) and statistical significance of the regression model* West Germany East Germany Variables Beta T / P-Level Beta T / P-Level Constant** 1,69 / .10 6,84 / .00 Administrative elites
.19 1,29 / .20 .50 3,59 / .00
1. Family socialisation Latent political socialisation
- .12 - 0,67 / .51 - .25 - 1,89 / .07
Manifest political socialisation
.07 0,44 / .66 .57 4,14 / .00
Democratic vs. authoritarian personality
.09 0,62 / .54 .29 2,11 / .04
2.Occupational mobility pattern
.26 1,71 / .10 .07 0,57 / .57
3. Political career patterns Type 2: few experiences
- .14 - 0,81 / .43 - .14 - 1,17 / .25
Type 3: local career
- .03 - 0,19 / .85 .10 0,79 /.44
Type 4: level hoppers
- .12 - 0,73 / .47 - .04 - 0,34 / .74
Type 5: careers on national levels
- .11 - 0,61 / .55 .10 0,81 / .42
R-Square .17 .38 * Dependent variable: Ranking of collaboration/integration (consensus orientation) ** Reference category: political elites; political career type 1 - without political experiences/ambitions
5. Summary and further perspectives
Political sciences and empirical studies often underline the importance of the local political level. Especially in Germany the atmosphere among political actors can be described as consensus-orientated and collaborative. From a theoretical perspective it can be argued that specific cultural competences can support participation and the integration into interaction-based, decision-making processes.
Hence the question of the analyses was how cultural capital, in terms of behavioural orientations and ability to collaborate with others, is mediated. At least three socialisation instances that are passed by the most elite members can be regarded as important. The first experiences with socio-political questions are usually gained within the primary family. Furthermore, the educational style may influence the personality development and basic orientations. During adulthood, the mediation of attitudes and orientations is rather influenced by secondary socialisation instances. For actors within the political system, occupational and political careers can be regarded as particularly relevant: both take place within organisations, settings, and contexts that activate a self-amplifying process and selective learning effects.
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The specified model has more explanatory power for the East German system of local politics, which refers to different historical backgrounds and condition of socialisation processes. First of all, differences between administrative and political elites are much higher than in West Germany. This may caused by resentment against political actors in general, which becomes coherent especially against the background of the negative experiences in the former GDR: while politics is often associated with individual interests, we can find a general preference for objective and factual collaboration which is rather attributed to administrative elites there.
Furthermore, West-East-differences are reflected in the importance of institutions. While East German elites were rather influenced by their parents, in West Germany the occupational career has the most important effect on the mediation of cultural resources, behavioural orientations, and social skills. As mentioned above, families functioned as a counterweight in the East German state. For that reason, the politicisation within the family was much higher than in West Germany. Especially the intended mediation of political interest and democratic values can be highlighted. In contrast to this, an unintentional and therefore uncritical transmission of political ideas can have a negative effect on the ability to balance interests in the later years. In our context, in West Germany the families are not as important as in the GDR. There, the affinity to collaboration is rather formed by learning and selection effects within the working life. Especially a fast career and advancement seem to be suitable in promoting the development of cooperative behavioural styles.
The most surprising result is that neither party affiliation nor experiences within the political systems had any effect, which refers to the general weakness of parties within local politics in Germany. Instead of this, the elites dispose of general abilities to mediate different perspectives and interests regardless whether they are party members or not. For them it is probably more important to have a special self-awareness of the specific function they have to fulfil. This sense of responsibility is not necessarily mediated by parties or political engagement, and will be shared by all elites.
However, there are still some questions unanswered. Firstly, the examined socialisation instances have to be enriched. It can be assumed that peer groups in schools, universities or at work form political milieus and influence the behavioural orientations too. Secondly, there are still questions concerning developments in the future. On the one hand, the differences between both German regions found here may disappear or grow even stronger. For instance, it can be expected that mobility patterns under the presently new conditions, especially at the labour market, may change. On the other hand, it often is argued that the consensus-orientation at the local level in general will decrease. Instead of this, parties and individual interests will become more important. Hence the question rises whether other or additional inclusion mechanisms will appear. However, these questions will be subjected to future research.
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