Inside/outside Regional Political Elite – Full-Time Legislators Vs. Non-Full Time Executive Members

The establishment of the second tier of local government (or counties or regionalization) changed the opportunity structure for professional political careers in the Czech Republic. In the terminology of Schlesinger (1966), this was a change in the shape rather than the size of the opportunity structure. Two more numerous groups of full-time politicians in the Czech Republic - MPs and mayors – came into existence in the early 1990s immediately after the fall of the communist regime. The senators increased the number of parliamentarians in 1996, and the third group - county full-time politicians, appeared only at the turn of the millennium. The numbers of county councillors and members of executive boards are set by law. They are roughly related to the county population. For the opportunity structure, however, the fact that the number of full-time politicians and their positions is decided by the councils themselves, is more important. On average, a fifth of the 675 positions in county councils are full-time positions. The proportion of full-time positions has been changing over time but what is more interesting here also varies widely from county to county. There are counties where many other positions outside the executive council are full-time. Yet in some counties not even all the members of the executive board are full-time county politicians. The prime aim of the paper is, therefore, to compare two distinct groups of regional politicians – full-time legislators on the one hand and non-full time members of the county executive board on the other hand. Political and personal background will be shown as well as different career paths. Another aim of the paper is to explain the differences between counties, which differ not only in terms of the availability of full-time positions, but also in terms of their accessibility or the strength of incumbency (Borchert 2011). In every county, the number and distribution of full-time posts is an important part of the coalition negotiations. The research questions are as follows: Are the differences related to the changes of the governing coalitions? Is it possible to talk about full-time positions outside executive board as a part of the safety net provided for important members of their political parties? Furthermore, non-full time county executives could serve as full-time politicians at another level, most typically mayors. Does the presence of this type of politicians indicate the existence of some substantive interconnectedness of various levels of government or is it rather individual characteristic?