Katja Schwanke

The German political-administrative elites are still characterized as mainly male, stemming from the middle-class, especially from families with bureaucratic backgrounds. Supposedly they are predominantly academic persons with the majority having a degree in law (monopoly of jurists). Those statements though, still rely on empirical data resulting from a study which was conducted for Germany within the Comparative Elite Studies II (CES) in 1987, which itself was a replication of the CES in 1970 by Aberbach, Putnam and Rockman. However, since them many changes have taken place in Germany. The reunification as well as a tendency towards more Europeanization and globalization exerted influence on the political-administrative system. Therefore, we can assume that the political and administrative elites have changed concerning their constitutions, attitudes and role understandings. This paper is dedicated to the question as to whether the political and administrative elite have changed. Data from two surveys will be analyzed. The two surveys are the PAE 2005 conducted by Katja Schwanke and Falk Ebinger (a replication of the CES II) and the PALe 2007 conducted by Katja Schwanke and Steffen Eckhard. The former is surveying the federal political and administrative elites in 2005, the later is a replication for two German Länder (Bavaria and Hesse) in 2007. To anticipate the main conclusion, continuity more than change can be verified.

The German Federal Government's political-administrative elite is still characterized as mainly male and from the middle-class, stemming especially from families with bureaucratic backgrounds. Supposedly they are predominantly academic persons with the majority having a degree in law (monopoly of jurists). Those statements though, still rely on empirical data resulting from a study which was conducted for Germany within the Comparative Elite Studies II (CES) in 1987, which itself was a replication of the CES in 1970. The political-administrative elite was analyzed by Renate Mayntz and Hans-Ulrich Derlien. They interviewed members of the political-administrative elite about their values, attitudes and role understanding. Those over 20 year old data still are the basis for recent elite studies. However, during this period many changes have taken place in Germany. The reunification as well as a tendency towards more Europeanization and globalization exerted influence on the political-administrative system. Earmarking for this change are the growing serious public, state and academic discussions concerning administrative modernization, which took place over the past decades. Besides this reorganization of the political-administrative system, society in itself also developed. Therefore, we can assume, that the political-administrative elite itself has changed in the course of time concerning its constitution, attitude and role understanding. To shed light on and to close the gap in knowledge, this paper is dedicated to the question as to whether the political-administrative elite has changed in its attributes, attitudes and role understandings, by conducting a replication of the Comparative Elite Studies. To answer the research questions data from two surveys will be analyzed. The two surveys are the PAE 2005 conducted by Katja Schwanke and Falk Ebinger (a replication of the comparative elite studies CES II in 1987) and the PALe 2007 conducted by Katja Schwanke and Steffen Eckhard. The former is surveying the federal political and administrative elite (PAE) in 2005, the later is a replication for two German Länder (Bavaria and Hesse) (PALe) in 2007. One achievement of this paper is to provide an updated empirical data basis for further scientific research. To anticipate the main conclusion, continuity more than change can be verified. In general, attributes, values and especially the role understanding of politicians and bureaucrats did not change fundamentally in recent years. This trite result starts only to surprise in comparison with executed changes within the german political-administrative system.

The importance of networking for regional development is meanwhile beyond controversy. Hence, political interest in fostering network activities in the regions is high. This asks at the same time for new ways of regional governance and concurrently for additional strategic in-telligence for regional decision-makers. But so far the discussions missed the challenging question, which information about regional networks is relevant for successful regional go-vernance processes and how it might be achieved. Social Network Analyses (SNA) seem to be an ideal instrument for revealing the information needed. So far they have been used manifold for visualizing interactions between corporative actors in single networks. The link to regional issues was rarely made, the regional context mostly left aside. For governance processes a step further is necessary: the regional environ-ment of the networks as well as their interplay with other (cooperative) activities at the re-gional level has to be explicitly taken into consideration. With its comprehensive visualisation of cooperative activities the SNA makes an important contribution to the understanding of regional situations. It allows decision makers to identify strategic starting points for their interventions. However, the impact of SNA must not be overestimated. It may support regional governance processes effectively, but therefore it must be used correctly and be adequately incorporated in the whole governance setting.