The ruling class: management and politics in modern Italy

There is a longstanding tradition of sociological studies on the ruling class. Economists devoted so far much less attention than sociologists to the study of ruling classes. This is a pity as a number of theoretical tools of economists can be rather powerful in understanding what drives the formation of a ruling class. In particular, the tools of labour economics can be very useful in characterizing the selection of the ruling class, the labour market of politicians, the allocation of time of managers, their incentives, remunerations and career paths. This volume contributes to filling these gaps. It draws on contributions from two teams of leading scholars in the field and on a large data gathering effort undertaken by the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti. The first part of the book draws on detailed information on personal characteristics, incomes, performance in office and career paths (before, after as well as during the Parliamentary mandate) of all the politicians who have been elected to the Italian Lower Chamber (Camera) between 1948 and 2008. This is the first time that this information is gathered and summarized in some key indicators. The second part of the volume is based on a variety of sources, including cross-country surveys of managers covering a very interesting sample of European countries, ad-hoc surveys carried out in co-operation with the largest union of managers in the service sector, social security records, and, last but not least, the first time-use survey ever carried out on the allocation of time of top executives.