Although Michels (1911) had already emphasized the relevance of specialization within the elitist phenomenon, it was Robert Dahl –with his seminal work Who governs? (1961)– the first scholar who systematically explored the interrelation between the socio-political characteristics of the individuals holding a position of power, and their preferential orientation to certain policy areas. Since then, not many studies on elites have tried to identify other processes of specialization –similar to those observed by Dahl in the local elite of New Haven (Conneticut)–, being exceptions to this some contributions focused on the “sectorization” of female politicians (Thomas, 1994; Davis, 1997; Studlar and Moncrief, 2002), or the growing “europeanisation” of the profiles and policy attitudes of EU representatives (Verzichelli and Edinger, 2005). Committed with the developing of the “specialization” perspective in the study of ruling groups, the present paper aims to provide an analytical framework for investigating the Spanish economic ministers, a sector of the government elite that would comprise the heads of various departments (Treasury, Economy, Industry, Commerce, Public Works, etc.). The purpose of such research work would be to find out how has evolved –from the beginning of the twentieth century until present– the socio-political profile of this specific group, assuming as a fundamental premise that the increasing complexity of the economic world during the delimited period may have fostered, within the aforementioned area of government, the consolidation of recruitment patterns based on specialization.
