Defrosting of “Frozen Hypothesis” - New Approaches to Social Cleavages Cover Image

Odmrzavanje „zamrznute hipoteze“ - novi pristupi socijalnim rascepima
Defrosting of “Frozen Hypothesis” - New Approaches to Social Cleavages

Author(s): Dušan Spasojević
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Fakultet političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu
Keywords: social cleavages; social structure; political parties

Summary/Abstract: This paper discusses the development of Lipset-Rokkan theory on social cleav-ages that was formulated at the end of sixties as the result of comparative research into social structure and its influence on party systems in developed democracies. The first part of the paper addresses the initial theory, as well as the first critiques and innovations that came about as the result of changes in social structure and emergence of post-modern and post-materialistic societies. Then the focus of the paper shifts to the innovations from the post-communist societies research filed, to turn at the end to the newest re-con-ceptualisations in relation to the Western societies that pin point the change of complex structure of social cleavages and increased influence of political actors. The thesis put forward by the paper is that the concept of social (politi-cal) cleavages, with certain improvements, remains a useful analytical tool in transitional, as well as in old democracies

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 225-237
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Serbian