Evolution of Bureaucratic Political Attitudes

• In Event: Political Attitudes of Bureaucrats and Regime Transitions

Abstract

While the public sector workers in autocracies are less likely to support democracy than the private sector employees, this is not the case in democracies. However, it is unclear what forces shape the overall attitudes of public sector workers in transitions to democracy: are more pro-democratic individuals joining public sector? Are less democratic ones leaving? Or are the attitudes of individual public sector workers evolving over time? This paper uses panel data from Poland, Russia and East Germany collected since the early 1990s until now to analyze broadly-construed political attitudes of the public sector workers. Specifically, it examines how the dynamics of selection into, and socialization in, public sector jobs affect political attitudes of different types of bureaucrats. Exploiting the different paths these three countries took with respect to democratization, the paper aims to shed light on the evolution of institutional changes and bureaucratic political attitudes.

Author

• Barbara Maria Piotrowska, King's College London