THE POLITICS OF ELITE TRANSFORMATION IN PAKISTAN: A STUDY OF RECRUITMENT TO THE CENTRAL CABINET, 1947-197

Proceeding from the assumption that elite analysis offers a theoretically meaningful and empirically relevant approach to the study of politics in the developing nations, this dissertation examines the patterns of elite recruitment to the Pakistani central cabinet within and across four distinct historical periods between 1947 and 1977. Each period is bounded by a political crisis and associated changes in regime characteristics. Elite recruitment is viewed as an important determinant of leadership institutionalization and as a measure of the ways in which different Pakistani regimes both reflected and affected the broader systemic changes stimulated by modernization.;Social background data related to the demographic attributes and political experiences of cabinet ministers are utilized in this study. A quasi-experimental, interrupted time-series research design is employed to assess changes in the configuration of demographic and political characteristics in the cabinet within and across the four historical periods.;Within specific periods, cabinet recruitment was linked to the social, economic and political configuration of each regime's support base and critically affected its policy outcomes. Across the four periods, changes in cabinet composition were associated with shifts in regime characteristics that accompanied the political crises demarcating each period.These crises stemmed from the failure of each regime to overcome the reinforcing regional, occupational and political cleavages that divided Pakistani elites and to bring about the requisite pluralization of the leadership structure. As a consequence, continued regime legitimacy and systemic stability were undermined.