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Vol. 53 No. 4 (2025)

Research Articles

Political careers of the Polish regional elite: Przyczynek do debaty nad przemianami współczesnych wzorów karier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35757/STP.2025.53.4.02
Submitted: August 9, 2024
Published: December 22, 2025

Abstract

This article presents the professional political careers of the members of regional executives from 1998-2023. During this period, 484 people sat on regional boards, of whom 84 held posts as their heads. The main research question concerned what their professional political careers preceding their appointment to regional boards looked like. The main assumption was that in Poland, as a consequence of the territorial reform of 1999, the multilevel system was launched, creating new opportunities for the development of professional political careers. Thus, the supposition that the traditional model of career is an unquestionable phenomenon can be rejected, but it is becoming only one of the potential options. The type of political positions had an impact on their careers: heads of regional boards had more extensive and multilevel political experience compared with other members of these boards.

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