Boundary crossing and elite attributes in European civil societies

A debated feature of civil society leadership is the (lack of) diversity among leaders. Another concern is the recruitment of leaders from the public and private sector. In this study we link these debates, analysing how civil society elite boundary crossing – that is, leaders from public and private sectors moving into elite positions in civil society – contributes to making the group of civil society leaders more elitist. First, we analyse the frequency of elite boundary crossing across different civil society regimes. Second, we explore what attributes boundary crossers bring to civil society and how this influences the composition of the civil society elite. Drawing on unique survey data from four European countries and the EU level, we show that civil society elite boundary crossing is rather common, but with significant variation across civil society regimes. We also find that boundary crossing tends to make the group of civil society leaders more elitist.