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Training for local elected officials is counterintuitive. Its democratic value in facilitating the use and exercise of authority at the local level is widely recognized. However, few elected representatives ask for such training in office. In order to understand the imbalance between rhetoric and practice, we must do away with the belief that local officials have “free choice” to train and act as living proof of the factors and social backgrounds that can determine a person’s access to this right. This article shows that local elected officials’ access to training is more predicated upon institutional and biographical variables than personal interest.