Abstract
From time to time the claim is made that ‘politicians are all the same’ — not least when politicians are lambasted in the aftermath of unpopular decisions or actions. The differences between the various individuals who make up the political elite are claimed to be minor compared to the differences between persons belonging to the upper strata of the hierarchy of formal political power and the mundane rest of the population. Even scholars often stress this point (e.g. Putnam 1976; Best and Cotta 2000), thereby basically supporting the conclusion of classical elite theorists stating that the primary line of division of the population is between the elite and the non-elite (Pareto 1935; Mosca 1939). Politicians do differ from the electorate at large — they form a subspecies of human being by the very fact of having a political mandate. And in some cases they not only have politics as an avocation but also as a vocation — living not just for politics but also off politics (Weber 1919).
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Kjær, U. (2006). The Mayor’s Political Career. In: Bäck, H., Heinelt, H., Magnier, A. (eds) The European Mayor. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90005-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90005-6_4
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