Elite Circulation and Temporal Dynamics of Elite Change in Autocracies – A Prosopographical Analysis of the Political and Administrative Elite in the German Democratic Republic (PAE-GDR)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sylvia Veit
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 524267884

Focusing on the German Democratic Republic, the proposed project aims to analyze the composition and prevalent rationalities of political and administrative elites in autocratic regimes. The project builds on two strands of research – the literature on political elites and research on the politicization and representation of bureaucracies – that have yet to be systematically connected, even though they show obvious similarities in their theoretical approaches and research interest. The central question concerns the factors than can explain the extent, scope and temporal dynamics in the circulation and transition of elites in the GDR between 1949 and 1990. Empirically, the project is based on a comprehensive set of biographical data drawn from archival material so far not accessible for other research projects, which enables the extrapolation of collective biographies. The original data set facilitates the observation of temporal developments as well as comparisons between organizations and political systems as to the sociodemographic characteristics, educational background, careers, political activity and the support or opposition of a political system. For comparative analyses, the project can take recourse to similar data sets for the Federal Republic of Germany, the NS-Regime, the Weimar Republic and the German Empire, which have previously been compiled by the applicant and her team.The project responds to the growing demand for longitudinal research in public administration and offers methodical as well as conceptual contributions to elite research in political science by expanding approaches to the empirical analyses of collective biographies, adding the factor of individual relation to a political system and compiling indices that transcend the prevalent approaches of statistical analyses which largely focus on single variables. On a theoretical level, the project adds to existing research through the adaption of politicization concepts established in public administration research on democratic systems for autocracies. Furthermore, the project explores a connection between elite circulation and transition of elites and political ideology, for example with regard to the consequences of a propagated social equality in a workers’ and peasants’ state for the representativeness of elites.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants