This book provides a comparative examination of representative elites and their role in democratic development in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. It provides an in-depth analysis of representatives from eleven national parliaments and explores country-specific features of recruitment and representation.

1. Parliamentary elite formation after communism: an introduction ELENA SEMENOVA, MICHAEL EDINGER, AND HEINRICH BEST Part I: Central European Parliaments 2. The Czech parliament on the road to professionalization and stabilization ZDENKA MANSFELDOVÁ 3. Hungarian MPs in the context of political transformation GABRIELLA ILONSZKI AND ANDRÁS SCHWARCZ 4. The Polish Diet since 1989: from fragmentation to consolidation JACEK WASILEWSKI AND WITOLD BETKIEWICZ Part II: Baltic 5. Parliaments Recruitment of parliamentary representatives in an ethno-liberal democracy: Estonia MINDAUGAS KUKLYS 6. Legislative elites in multi-ethnic Latvia after 1990 MINDAUGAS KUKLYS 7. Lithuanian parliamentary elites after 1990: dilemmas of political representation and political professionalism IRMINA MATONYTE AND GINTARAS sUMSKAS 8. Croatian parliamentary elites: towards professionalization and homogenization VLASTA ILIsIN and GORAN CULAR 9. The 'waiting room': Romanian parliament after 1989 LAURENTIU STEFAN AND RAZVAN GRECU Part III: Post-Soviet Parliaments 10. Legislative elite formation in Moldova: continuity and change WILLIAM CROWTHER 11. Parliamentary representation and MPs in Russia: historical retrospective and comparative perspective OXANA GAMAN-GOLUTVINA 12. Parliamentary representation in post-communist Ukraine: change and stability ELENA SEMENOVA 13. Patterns of parliamentary elite recruitment in post-communist Europe: a comparative analysis ELENA SEMENOVA, MICHAEL EDINGER, AND HEINRICH BEST