Institutional Effects on Elite Recruitment

Abstract

Employing data from a survey of state legislators in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Washington, this article assesses the effects of different systems of nomination on the overlap of public (governing) and party elites. The extent of the overlap of political leadership in these two arenas is found to vary systematically with the degree of "open ness," or access, of nonparty forces to the nominating process. The links between the nature of the nominating system and indicators of elite overlap remain strong even after controls for demographic and interparty competitive factors are introduced. The results indicate that the nomination aspect of the political environment has effects on the struc tures and processes of the political parties that should neither be underestimated nor overlooked in future analyses.