This collection of studies deals with the evolution and metamorphoses of the political and mainly parliamentary elite in the Habsburg lands and the neighbouring countries, during the long 19th century. It comprises fourteen studies, compiled by both renowned scholars in the field and young researchers from Central and Eastern Europe.

Contents: Peter Urbanitsch: Intellectual Elites and the Franchise for Representative Bodies on Local, Regional and State Levels in Cisleithania 1848-1914 – Franz Adlgasser: Lawyers in the Austrian Parliament, 1848-1918. A Prosopographic Case Study – Luboš Velek: The Czech Club in Prague: the Political Association as a Means to Political Mobilisation and the Legitimisation and Cultivation of Civil Elites in the 1870s – Jiří Šouša/Jiří Štaif: The Social Question as a Focus of Interest for Political and Entrepreneurial Elites: Lands of the Bohemian Crown 1880-1914 – Jiří Malíř: The Moravian Diet and Political Elites in Moravia 1848-1918 – Lukáš Fasora: Deutschliberal and Deutschnational. Continuity and Discontinuity in Local Politics and the Diet of Moravia 1880-1914 – Harald Binder: Galicia’s Parliamentary Elites in the Transition to Mass Politics – Mihai-Ştefan Ceauşu: Representation of the Romanian Political Elite in the Bukovina Diet (1861-1914) – József Pap: Problems in the Career Analysis of Hungarian Representatives in the Age of Dualism – András Cieger: Interests and Strategies. An Investigation of the Political Elite of the Sub-Carpathian Region in the Age of Dualism (1867-1918) – Alexandru Onojescu/Ovidiu Iudean/Vlad Popovici: Parliamentary Representation in Eastern Hungary (1861-1918). Preliminary Results of a Prosopographic Inquiry – Judit Pál: Representation of the Transylvanian Towns in the Hungarian Parliament and Town MPs after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1866-1875) – Nicolae Bocşan: The Romanian Political Elite in Transylvania between Militancy and Professionalisation – Silvia Marton: Becoming Political Professionals. Members of Parliament in Romania (1866-1914).