This paper investigates recruitment and professional mobility processes and the role of social networks in recruitment of senior officials in Latvia since 1990-ies when Latvia regained its independence and stand on the way of democracy. Under the soviet regime which Latvia was part of before the state bureaucracy and its personnel policy were strongly politicized in order to have loyal and reliable members on the board. The soviet-type recruitment traditions in combination with slow development of new civil service based on the best practices of democratic countries resulted in strong political pressure on recruitment of state officials in Latvia until 2000. Some improvements took place when Latvia joined the EU though even in 2010 recruitment procedures of appointed elites were still underdeveloped, especially in terms of transparency of decision making about candidates selected to posts.
The sociological profile of candidates appointed to senior administrative positions can be a valuable source of information to understand recruitment process itself. This paper clarifies the role of political patronage and social capital in recruitment of senior officials in Latvia. Comparisons with findings from research in few other post–communist countries will help to identify some common recruitment patterns in post-communistic countries and describe a unique “signature” of Latvia.
The methodology of empirical research has multi-disciplinary roots from sociology, management and political sciences. The social networks activated in recruitment of appointed elites will be reconstructed with the help of several methods: analysis of CV’s of senior officials, published memoirs of political leaders and senior officials, semi-structured interviews with senior officials. Professional mobility is a by-product of recruitment process which will be drawn from analysis of career movements of senior officials appointed to positions of senior officials.
KEY WORDS: recruitment of appointed elites, state secretaries, patronage, social capital, social networks, professional mobility, post-communist countries.
