Abstract
This chapter discusses the increasing percentage of journalists in the Greek Parliament compared with other professions. The extent of career cross‐over from journalism to politics in Greece is explained by the growing influence of media in contemporary democracies and the impact of the resources of reputation, epistemic power, and expertise that can be capitalized by journalists. Data retrieved over the past 30 years confirm changes in the professions of MPs: the decreasing presence of traditionally represented professions (such as lawyers) and increasing presence of newly represented professions (such as journalists) is in line with professional transformations that have characterized the parliaments of European countries throughout the twentieth century. The analysis is based on two components. Our first aim is to identify patterns of political representation between new and traditional professions (levels of education, age, gender, parliamentary terms, party career, etc.). Second, we aim to present a typology of journalists’ career patterns. Our findings show the different types of capital working for entry into parliament: personal capital based on reputation and epistemic power, which lead to eligibility and delegated capital that is based on investment in political posts, further leading to re-election and governability. Journalists tend to hold the first type of capital.
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Notes
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By reputation variables we define variables showing the reputation one’s can have to be placed in state lists or in large constituencies (up to 20 or over 20 seats).
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Kountouri, F. (2023). Revolving Doors Between Journalism and Politics: A Comparative Approach to Traditional and New Professions in the Greek Parliament. In: Kakepaki, M., Kountouri, F. (eds) Parliamentary Elites in Transition. Reform and Transition in the Mediterranean. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11694-0_4
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