ABSTRACT
The stabilization of any politico economic system is contingent upon consolidation not only at the levels of the electoral and party systems, the political, economic, and social associations, and the state administration, but also at the level of the recruitment of elites and the “learning of elites.” As early as in the 1960s and '70s, the power structures had already, according to Natalia Lapin, begun to loosen up, especially at the horizontal level. For transformation to be successful, it is important that the existing elite be replaced as completely as possible. At the regional level, too, a sweeping replacement of the elites has taken place at the top levels of the executive and the legislative, at least in formal terms. The integration of the political and the economic elites at the central and regional levels will continue.
