Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Notes on Contributors -- Preface -- 1. Parliamentary Representatives from Early Democratization to the Age of Consolidated Democracy: National Variations and International Convergence in a Long-term Perspective -- 1.1. A long-term perspective on the democratization of Europe: political representation and the great change of European societies -- 1.2. Research bases -- 1.3. Theoretical perspectives -- 1.4. Previous findings: variations and common trends in the long-term change of European parliamentary recruitment and careers -- 1.5. Mapping differences and similarities: research questions and guidelines for this book -- 1.6. Searching for explanations -- 1.7. The plan of the book, chapters, and their contents -- Part I. Dimensions of Variation -- 2. The Decline of the Nobility -- 2.1. Introduction -- 2.2. The pre-democratic role of the nobility -- 2.3. The nobility and democratization -- 2.4. Conclusion -- 3. From Servants of the State to Elected Representatives: Public Sector Background among Members of Parliament -- 3.1. Preliminary remarks -- 3.2. Two perspectives for understanding the weight of the étatiste background among parliamentary elites -- 3.3. The variables and data in the DATACUBE -- 3.4. An historical trend -- 3.5. Components of the public service -- 3.6. Variations across countries -- 3.7. Variations across parties -- 3.8. Concluding remarks -- 4. Why so Few and Why so Slow? Women as Parliamentary Representatives in Europe from a Longitudinal Perspective -- 4.1. Introduction -- 4.2. The concept of gender parity -- 4.3. Research findings from the literature -- 4.4. Hypotheses and methods -- 4.5. Data analysis -- 4.6. Conclusion: why so slow, and why so few? Gender parity in the European Parliaments.

5. Cultural Capital and Political Selection: Educational Backgrounds of Parliamentarians -- 5.1. Historical transformations of educational backgrounds of parliamentarians -- 5.2. The causes of the elevation of parliamentarians' education level -- 5.3. Consequences: towards new forms of political professionalization and new channels of representation -- 6. A Career through the Party: The Recruitment of Party Politicians in Parliament -- 6.1. Introduction -- 6.2. Parties and 'party politicians' -- 6.3. Recruitment of party officials -- 6.4. Recruitment of party functionaries -- 6.5. The role of the parties -- 6.6. Concluding analysis and discussion -- 7. The Geographical Dimension of Parliamentary Recruitment-among Native Sons and Parachutists -- 7.1. Geography and recruitment -- 7.2. A conceptual framework -- 7.3. A micro approach -- 7.4. A quick tour of Western Europe -- 7.5. The longitudinal perspective -- 7.6. A two-country exploration: Denmark and Norway -- 7.7. Propositions for future research -- Part II. Variations across Party Families -- 8. The Changing Nature and Role of European Conservative Parties in Parliamentary Institutions from 1848 to the Twenty-first Century -- 8.1. Questions, expectations, and rationale of the chapter -- 8.2. The fortunes of conservative parties within European parliaments -- 8.3. The original profile of conservative parliamentary recruitment -- 8.4. Conservative politicians in the age of 'catch-all parties': towards a 'centre-right' pattern of recruitment? -- 8.5. The recent 'neoconservative' elite -- 8.6. Conclusions -- 9. Restructuring of the European Political Centre: Withering Liberal and Persisting Agrarian Party Families -- 9.1. The liberal party family -- 9.2. The agrarian party family -- 9.3. Transformation of the agrarian parties into centre parties -- 9.4. Hypotheses -- 9.5. Education -- 9.6. Occupation.

9.7. Political experience -- 9.8. Female representation -- 9.9. Conclusions -- 10. Christian Democratic Parliamentarians: From a Century of Multifaceted Recruitment to the Convergence within a 'Larger Family'? -- 10.1. Introduction: research questions and structure of the chapter -- 10.2. The emergence of a Christian Democratic parliamentary elite: When and how? -- 10.3. Parliamentary recruitment of the European Christian democratic parties: long-term trends -- 10.4. Recent developments: new types of Christian Democratic representation? -- 10.5. Conclusion: from the multifaceted recruitment patterns of an historical party family to converging but 'less Christian Democratic' elites -- 11. Socialist and Communist Members of Parliament: Distinctiveness, Convergence, and Variance -- 11.1. Framework and hypotheses -- 11.2. The beginning-how to be distinctive -- 11.3. Socialists, communists, and the others -- 11.4. Variations within the party family -- 11.5. Conclusions -- 12. The Extreme Right -- 12.1. Introduction: extremisms on the right -- 12.2. From the late nineteenth century to the Second World War -- 12.3. Post-war extremists and neo-fascists -- 12.4. Conclusions -- 13. Parliamentary Elites of New European Party Families: Unsuccessful Challenges or Chaotic Signs of Change? -- 13.1. Anarchists, alternatives, beginners? 'New politics' representative elites after 1970 -- 13.2. The impact of three 'new' party families within parliamentary representation in European countries -- 13.3. How to deal with data on new parties: the small 'N' problem and the significance of 'challengers' MPs -- 13.4. Working hypotheses and data exploration -- 13.5. Towards a tentative interpretation -- 13.6. Final remarks -- Part III. Comprehensive Analyses -- 14. Cleavage Representation in European Parliamentary History -- 14.1. The cleavage concept and elite theory.

14.2. Research concepts and methods -- 14.3. Elite structure and cleavage development: France in comparative perspective -- 14.4. Strategies and dynamics of cleavage representations: a comprehensive view -- 15. Paths of Institutional Development and Elite Transformations -- 15.1. Democratization and the transformation of parliamentary elites -- 15.2. Searching for explanations: some preliminary hypotheses -- 15.3. The dependent variables -- 15.4. The independent variables -- 15.5. What empirical evidence for our hypotheses? -- 15.6. Between discontinuity and adaptation: the effects of regime changes on the European parliamentary elites of the late twentieth century -- 15.7. Conclusions -- 16. Conclusions -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.