Abstract

The article aims to reconstruct and compare the characteristics of the regional political class in two Italian Regions (Sicily and Tuscany) through the most dissimilar research strategy. Such characteristics are been inferred within a common conceptual framework which involves three levels of analysis: first, the political culture, that is the socio-economic and cultural factors which set the broad context within any region; secondly, the political system, that is the structure of political opportunities (institutional factors) and the structure of political competition (party system); lastly, the party context (ideology, strategy and party organization). The aim of this article is to analyse, using these three interacting sets of variables, the persistence of the traditional models of representation (individualistic vs. partisan) in two Regions and the effects of these different models; particularly, I analyse the social character and the career structure of regional politicians (who gets selected and why); the methods of selecting candidates for regional appointments (who selects and how) and the way individual regional councillors interpret their role (what does the elected do).