The Role of Regional Compatriotship in Recruitment of Administrative Elites: The Potential of Network Analysis for Study of Elites in Russia

Abstract

The paper is devoted to presentation of the one aspect of the research project dedicated to study of political administrative elite in contemporary Russia. It is based on the network analysis methodology that is not widely used by Russian scholars of elites. The authors establish their approach on the mapping of the social networks within elite groups. Although the explanatory power of the network approach is still comparatively weak it is applied as exploratory method for structuring of empirical data, find the trends and set the research questions and hypotheses. The study of networks based on the birthplace is presented in the paper. The key research question is the following: are there cohesive subgroups based on birthplace compatriotship in federal executive branch of power? Federal ministers, deputy ministers and heads of departments are included into sample. The authors find that regional compatriotship is not the important factor of the recruitment of the federal political administrative elite. However, in some cases the cohesive groups based on compatriotship ties appear within one ministry. For example, when the authors reduce the sample to those who were born after 1970, several cohesive subgroups of regional compatriots are found.

About the authors

Aleksandr S. Sherstobitov

Saint Petersburg State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: sherstobitovas@mail.ru

PhD in Political Science, Co-founder of Institute of Regional Development Ltd

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Elizaveta V. Begar

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: libelibe98@gmail.com

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Nikolay M. Gorohov

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: gorohov_1998@inbox.ru

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Valeria D. Dmitrieva

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: ms.valeria.spb@mail.ru

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Anastasia N. Dybkina

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: a.dybkina@yandex.com

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Daniil N. Eremin

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: ereminspbu@gmail.com

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Olga S. Kiseleva

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: lely-98@mail.ru

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Artyom V. Kovalevskiy

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: kovalevsky.arteom@yandex.ru

4th Year Student of the Faculty of Political Science

Universitetskaya Embankment, 7-9, St.-Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

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Copyright (c) 2020 Sherstobitov A.S., Begar E.V., Gorohov N.M., Dmitrieva V.D., Dybkina A.N., Eremin D.N., Kiseleva O.S., Kovalevskiy A.V.

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