ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the turnover of members of parliament and the changes in their social, political and other characteristics that took place as a consequence of the 1994 and the 1996 general elections. It also explores the extent to which there has been a change in the balance between 'meso-policy' outputs and the (formerly predominant) 'micro-policies' of narrow scope, similar in character to patronage. The chapter starts from the observation that at the 1994 and 1996 elections the parties were apparently more willing to compete in terms of policies as opposed to the ideologial distinctions of the past. In the aftermath of the 1994 election it was possible to suggest that the recruitment of parliamentarians via the traditional mechanisms, tightly controlled from the centre by mass parties, was being supplemented by additional, partially new, channels of recruitment.
