WHO HOLDS THE PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE? THE EVIDENCE FROM EUROPE, 1990-2023

Abstract

This article maps the biographical characteristics of European presidents elected in direct elections after 1989. The author focuses on the structure of age, education, previous political experience, and gender. The article aims to describe the original dataset and to examine it in the context of the theoretical framework of descriptive representation and concepts of presidential power. Although only a partial relationship has been found between age structure and presidential power, and between gender structure and the Woman Political Participation Index, the general applicability of these findings to Europe is problematic. The effect of other factors was not shown at all, which indicates the specificity of the presidential election. The shape of the electoral system, the particularity of each case, and the current political situation determine who is elected president, and these findings cannot be generalized to the entire analyzed area.