Although the interest in the recruitment of the political class is not new in the social sciences, there is still little empirical evidence on how these processes take place. In this work we analyse how the selection and recruitment of the parliamentary elite is hold, paying especial attention to the motivations, characteristics and background of this elite in a relatively young democracy: Spain. This country is particularly interesting since the democratic transition represented a profound process of renewal of the political elite.
Our results show that the parliamentary elite recruitment varies widely not only between parties, but also between different profiles, by gender, age, education and previous experience. In this work we also analyse the diverse access routes to the parliamentary career, studying the impact of the background, the commitment to the party, the parliamentary knowledge, or the participation in civil organizations in the recruitment and the selection of the parliamentary elite.
To perform the analysis we use a database from the project "Political Elites in Spain", with survey data from personal interviews conducted in regional and national Spanish parliamentarians between 2009 and 2011. Its large sample allows us to develop a detailed analysis of the backgrounds and previous experience of this elite, and also a profound study of the motivations and characteristics that lead them to be part of the political class.
