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What is a politician ? Since about half a century, the concept of " politician " has considerably expanded. The motives are multi-sided : continuous increase of the electorate ; extension of the interest taken in politics, which are now " the thing of everybody " ; widening of the field of historical research, where prosopography replaces the traditional biographies of prominent statesmen and the narration of events is enlarged with the study of psychological and ideological aspects of political life. Of course the définition of a social category which embraces the whole of citizens — since all of them, in a real democracy, participate in politics in one way or another — is of scarce interest for the archivist. What must be the touch-stone for the selection of personages whose records are of interest for the knowledge of political history, is the conjunction of two criteria, at the intersection of the interest which they personally take in politics and of the extensiveness of the responsibilities which they assume. From these data we can define a professional class of politicians, — some 20.000 to 30.000 people in France in the recent decades — , comprising four or five distinct circles : members of the Governement and their political staff ; senior civil servants in the central of local administration ; members of Parliament (including the members of the European Assembly) and of the territorial (départemental and regional) councils ; leaders and militants of parties ; professional observers, commentators and informators of the political world.
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