This study draws from a survey funded by the European Union's Jean Monnet Chair in the Sociology of European Administration and Politics and aiming at comparing the profile of the 300 leadership positions of the EU institutions between the political conjuncture embodied by the trio Junker/Tusk/Schutz and the one that followed the 2019 elections, embodied by the trio Von der Leyen – Sassoli - Michel. These profile are studies through a large set of indicators including classical socio-biographical variable and a set of variable focusing on career paths, studies and types of authority or capital (politics/expertise/national/European) resulting from their trajectory. From this data set, we extract 108 positions of head and deputy heads of cabinets in the Commission and 4 of the Tusk and then Michel cabinets. While the literature has shown the Europeanization of cabinets (Egeberg) or more recently their move to a "symphonic dimension" (Bauer/Kassim/Connolly), the study of the profiles of Heads of cabinets and their deputies shows subtile balances between gender/nationalities and politics and expertise, the whole being simultaneously strongly dependent on the location of the political authority they serve in the EU field of power. In this sense our original data confirm the « symphonic turn » of the EU cabinets, but also draw the consequences of it on how representativeness and embedding both matters in the new specific context of EU institutions.

Within the machinery of the centre of the Croatian government there are various forms of obtaining policy advice. Besides numerous regulated, formal, official forms, there are those in the grey zone or even behind it. All of them deserve full research attention, because those located out-of-the-scene could be even more influential than the official ones. Some of them can be identified by following comprehensively covered cases in the media, but the majority are functioning behind the curtain and can be traced only by classic sociological-empirical research.

By analysing several interesting cases, we will try to identify who the semi-secret policy advisors are and how they are or can be engaged. We will take into consideration the following cases of policy advice: a) changing the general election units (2023), b) preparation of the so-called Lex Agrokor (2017), and c) engaging legal advisors in the arbitration cases between Croatia and MOL - Hungarian oil company (2021-2023). Using that empirical basis, along with other accessible information, we will try to speculate about the role, range, sources, and ways of obtaining policy advice at all levels of the Croatian governance system.

This paper explores in a comparative manner the main typologies and characteristics of the professional and political trajectories of state councilors and the honorary councilors before and after recruitment and promotion in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Romania. This political and sociological analysis identifies different typologies of political and personal patronage networks that have shaped the professional and educational path of state councilors and honorary councilors, based on a specific methodological toolkit endorsed by a set of quantified and measured pillars and indicators.

The previously mentioned pillars and indicators highlight the loyalty, membership and political visibility of councilors recruited and promoted to office.

The transformation of the administrative and personal apparatus of the Prime Minister of Romania reflects the (re)definition and (re)design of the role and place of the Executive in the institutional and political architecture of the state, from the perspective of the regulation and application of national, European and international governance standards. Post-accession to the EU, the minimum legal requirements regarding the professional experience and integrity of the staff within the Prime Minister's Office represents an indicator of the transparency of the governing act.

The concern over “revolving doors” – the movement of political aides (incl. political state secretaries) of the Finnish government between businesses or lobbyist organisations and positions within the government – has been subject to debate throughout the 2000s. Both European Council and OECD have noted the lacking regulation of the movement of civil servants between public service and business posts. In 2017, an act on “waiting periods” regulating the employment of high-ranking civil servants (political aides of the government included) in businesses after their civil servant posts was instituted, and a similar act for ministers has been under preparation. The movement of political aides of the government to and from business life is a widely accepted fact in Finland, and the phenomenon can be viewed as bearing potential significance from the perspective of interest group influence on government policy agenda and decision-making. However, the phenomenon or its scope has not been previously extensively researched in Finland. In this research, we aim to fill this gap by examining the movement of persons employed as political aides or state secretaries of the Finnish government between positions of employment before and after their posts as political aides of the government using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The SNA was conducted based on information on the political aides of the government between the years 2010-2023, along with information on a maximum of three places of employment both before and after their post as a political aide. The research contributes to the knowledge of the constitution of the entourages of the Finnish government(s), along with information on whether the 2017 legislation has had an intended effect.