Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 30, 1998, No. 1, p. 1-112
Editors' Preface
Studies
Harmadyová, Valentína - Bunèák, Ján: Social Transformation
in the Evaluations of the Slovak Elite
Sopóci, Ján: Voting Behaviour
Horizons
Partycki, S³awomir: A Sociological Interpretation of Market
(translated by Eva Laiferová)
Documents
Reflections and Self-Reflections of Slovak Sociology
Pašiak, Ján - Macháèek, Ladislav: Sociology in Slovakia: Precondition or
Reality
Information
Macháèek, Ladislav: The Journal Sociológia in the Year of its Thirtieth
Anniversary.
Lenczová, Terézia: The International Conference about Plurality of Forms
and Actors of Family Support.
Reviews
Sopóci, Ján - Búzik, Bohumil: Basics of Sociology (Roman Džambazoviè)
Ringen, Stein - Wallace, Claire (ed.): Social Reform in East-Central Europe:
New Trends in Transition. (Erika Kvapilová)
Bibliography
Selected Bibliography of daily press and magazine articles of the scholars
from the Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in the
years 1990 and 1997 (Adriana Cenká - Silvia Danišová)
Valentína Harmadyová
Ján Bunèák
Sociologický ústav SAV, Bratislava
Social Transformation in the Evaluations of the Slovak Elite. This article presents an overview of different frames that underlain the Slovak political and social elite members' evaluations of the social transformation after the year 1989. Basic dimensions of the evaluation are examined: political results of the transformation, social consequences of macrosocial change and ways of further social development. Typical strategies of social transformation and modernisation recently proposed by the most important political camps and their civil supporters are discussed, such as: Slovak path of transformation, internationally accepted way of transformation and its modifications, communal prospect of development and communist way of thinking about the future.
Sociológia 1998 Vol. 30 (No. 1: 9-46)
Adresa: PhDr. Valentína Harmadyová, CSc., Mgr. Ján Bunèák, CSc., Sociologický ústav SAV, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. Tel.: +421/7/326 321, fax: +421/7/361 312,
e-mail: sociolog@sou.savba.sk,
Internet: sociolog@klemens.savba.sk
Ján Sopóci
Katedra sociológie FF UK, Bratislava
Voting Behaviour. Voting behaviour belongs to classic
topics of political sociology. The paper deals with the history of its
research and the most influential theoretical models. The research of voting
behaviour began in the 19th century - by journalist surveys in American
presidential elections. A more rigorous research of voting behaviour started
in 1935 when George Gallup established American Public Opinion Research
Institute. Strictly scientific approach to the voting behaviour study is
represented by explanatory research. They are two kinds of this research:
the first rests on the election statistics' analysis (elections studies)
and the second one on the variety of the voting behaviour empirical research.
The representatives of the first approach are French demographers A. Siegfried
and F. Goguel who established scientific school known as "voting geography
school". The representatives of the second approach are American and
European sociologists, psychologists and political scientists as P. F.
Lazarsfeld, B. Berelson, A. Cambell, S. M. Lipset, S. Verba, N. H. Nie,
J. Petrocik, H. Himmelweit, A. Heath, G. Marshall, etc. Their research
(executed mainly in the USA and UK) has aimed at construction and testing
various explanation models of voting behaviour.
The most well known models are economic, ideological, sociological and
socio-psychological ones. Economic models draw from the rational choice
and public choice theories of political and voting behaviour of A. Downs,
K. Arrow, J. Buchanan, etc. These authors suggest that voting represents
a form of rational decision making that involves the choice based on a
full understanding of the issues. The next versions of rational choice
theory maintain that people simply vote for any party that seems most likely
to maximise their material well-being.
Ideological model links voting to a social class and class ideology. Sociological
model or "social group theory of voting" explains election behaviour
with political alignment of economic classes, religious blocs and next
social groups. Social-psychological, or "Party identification model",
suggests that voting patterns in elections are primarily associated with
the socio-economic factors. These factors create the basis of party loyalty
by long-term political socialisation rather than it is moulded by the party
political campaigns at election time. This model also focuses on the social
correlates of voting and the lack of understanding the political issues
among the most voter except the most important ones. The author also introduces
the next voting behaviour models, for example interactionist model, model
of irrational behaviour, etc.
Sociológia 1998 Vol. 30 (No. 1: 47-60)
Adresa: Doc. PhDr. Ján Sopóci, CSc., katedra sociológie FF UK, Gondova 2, 818 01 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. Tel.: +421/07/304 111
S³awomir Partycki
Zaklad socjologii ogólnej, Uniwersytet Marii CurieSk³odowskiej, Lublin
Po¾sko
A Sociological Interpretation of Market. The question
of the market constitutes one of the fundamental problems of the sociology
of economy. Since the 1950s markets have become the object of comprehensive
and complex sociological studies. The first impulse came from K. Polanyi's
work Trade and Market in the Early Empires presenting the genesis and functioning
of the market in ancient societies. This study in the field of economic
anthropology inspired many sociological studies of a contemporary market.
The sociology of market has emerged under the socio-economic conditions
based on economic freedom. A contemporary market is a combination of economic
and social factors on the different levels of its functioning. Sociological
theories define market in different ways. One of the early conceptions
defines market as the realisation of a particular from of rationality determined
by the rules of the market game. Another approach characterises market
in the categories of a social institution. From another perspective market
is compared to social organisation. In recent times a market has been interpreted
in terms of a system. Sociological description also looks for a relationship
between market and social life pointing to the significant of social communication.
The sociology of market is a discipline in terms of which the relationship
between its cognitive functions and applications is very strong. The results
of research not only develop the cognition of the socio-economic reality
but also determine its active transformation.
Sociológia 1998, Vol. 30 (No. 1: 61-72)
Dr. S³awomir Partycki, Univerzita Marie Curie-Sk³odowskej, Lublin, Po¾sko.