The social base of political recruitment: a comparative study of local councillors in Europe

Local councillor recruitment operates in such a way that it favours the possibility for individuals with certain characteristics to enter and to remain in public office. One of the central questions then becomes: what are these characteristics and how do they influence the selection chances of these specific individuals? The aim of this contribution is to comparatively study a number of these questions for the population of local councillors in Europe. It evokes questions on the similarity or divergence of social biases in political recruitment in different local political systems. Do the same social background characteristics distinguish 'the many' from 'the few' in all countries under study? Do certain patterns in the 'skewing' of social background emerge and to what extent can they be linked to different institutional histories in local government? As such this study is one of the first to structurally scrutinise local councillors in such a systematic variety of political systems