Political education as a means of influence on political elite recruitment process

Considering political processes, one of the most important mechanisms can be singled out thatdetermines the other components of the political sphere to some extent. As we see it, political elite recruitment can belong to this process.Meanwhile, in the diversity of mechanisms affecting the logic of political elite recruitment, the author singles out political educationas the process that can model ideas, values, beliefs, contacts network, communication between individuals, social hierarchy. The articlehighlights that political education implicitly - with the help of social institutes and values - affects the models of political elite recruitment,conservation/transformation of the existing power relationships in politics. Having applied the social structure model proposed byP. Shtompka, the author gives his vision of the relation between political education and political elite recruitment at different levels - thelevel of institutionalisation of the normative structure, the level of articulation of the ideal structure, and, finally, the level of the interactionstructure expansion. The work defines such notions as potential and existing elites; it also describes various approaches of enteringthe power elite. The author describes different types of recruitment to track their connection with the process of political education.Guided by the model proposed by T. Parson, the author of the research concludes a direct relationship between the level of politicaleducation and its potential capacity for ascending social mobility within the power hierarchy of the modern world. The work emphasizesthe fact that in world practice there are a number of precedents of qualitative upgrade of political elite with the help of political education.However, despite the great potential of employing political and educational practices for forming/recruiting political elite, in Russianreality there is no specialized system that would be able to improve the professional level, on the one hand, and contribute to socialmobility, on the other hand. Meanwhile, the development and deployment of political education intended to upgrade the quality of potentialpolitical elite and increase the competence of the existing one will definitely increase the efficiency of the process of makingpolitical decisions at all levels of power.

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