Politicians in times of transformation: "Transformational correctness" or genuine differences in perception?

The paper presents selected results of the 1996 study of top Polish politicians-members of the 1993-97 Parliament and leaders of those important political parties which failed to get into this Parliament. Presented results pertain to five aspects of politicians' attitudes: (1) opinions on qualities of persons who should be vs. actually are involved in politics, (2) normatively accepted definitions of politics, (3) visions of the good state, (4) visions of democracy, and (5) opinions on what defines political views as being either on the left or on the right. As a result, consistently found across all five domains, there is a strong attitudinal similarity among politicians of differing political parties and of divergent political orientations. This finding is interpreted as reflection of a fundamental track similarity in the way in which Polish politicians perceive the most important tasks confronting the whole political class in times of systemic transformation. Transformational correctness - believing that in such times politicians should have (or at least should display) certain views - might be a strong force behind this similarity. --

Job Creation, Destruction and Transition in Poland, 1988-1998: Panel Evidence

Longitudinal data from interviews with Poles of working age conducted in 1988, 1993 and 1998 present a detailed view of the transition from a state dominated to a market economy. Job loss in state firms and job creation in new private firms are the dominant employment change, other than retirements from the labor force. In the Polish case, a significant proportion of this movement over the 1988 to 1998 period involves a period of unemployment or exit from the labor force before obtaining a private sector job. A second feature of the Polish transition is considerable job competition between workers leaving the state sector and those who were out of the labor force at the beginning of the transition. The likelihood of moving to the private sector was higher for the better educated and for residents of regions with a robust de novo economy, suggesting that the supply of jobs in the private sector combined with higher levels of human capital lead to faster and smoother transitions. Lastly, wage differences between the state sector and the de novo sector appear to have little association with mobility, suggesting that movement is not strongly related to the opportunity to find a higher paying job.Transition Economics, Labor Mobility, Poland

Job Creation, Destruction and Transition in Poland, 1988-1998: Panel Evidence

Longitudinal data from interviews with Poles of working age conducted in 1988, 1993 and 1998 present a detailed view of the transition from a state dominated to a market economy. Job loss in state firms and job creation in new private firms are the dominant employment change, other than retirements from the labor force. In the Polish case, a significant proportion of this movement over the 1988 to 1998 period involves a period of unemployment or exit from the labor force before obtaining a private sector job. A second feature of the Polish transition is considerable job competition between workers leaving the state sector and those who were out of the labor force at the beginning of the transition. The likelihood of moving to the private sector was higher for the better educated and for residents of regions with a robust de novo economy, suggesting that the supply of jobs in the private sector combined with higher levels of human capital lead to faster and smoother transitions. Lastly, wage differences between the state sector and the de novo sector appear to have little association with mobility, suggesting that movement is not strongly related to the opportunity to find a higher paying job.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39887/3/wp502.pd

Politicians in times of transformation: "Transformational correctness" or genuine differences in perception?

The paper presents selected results of the 1996 study of top Polish politicians-members of the 1993-97 Parliament and leaders of those important political parties which failed to get into this Parliament. Presented results pertain to five aspects of politicians' attitudes: (1) opinions on qualities of persons who should be vs. actually are involved in politics, (2) normatively accepted definitions of politics, (3) visions of the good state, (4) visions of democracy, and (5) opinions on what defines political views as being either on the left or on the right. As a result, consistently found across all five domains, there is a strong attitudinal similarity among politicians of differing political parties and of divergent political orientations. This finding is interpreted as reflection of a fundamental track similarity in the way in which Polish politicians perceive the most important tasks confronting the whole political class in times of systemic transformation. Transformational correctness - believing that in such times politicians should have (or at least should display) certain views - might be a strong force behind this similarity

Politicians in times of transformation: "transformational correctness" or genuine differences in perception?

"The paper presents selected results of the 1996 study of top Polish politicians members of the 1993-97 Parliament and leaders of those important political parties which failed to get into this Parliament. Presented results pertain to five aspects of politicians' attitudes: (1) opinions on qualities of persons who should be vs. actually are involved in politics, (2) normatively accepted definitions of politics, (3) visions of the 'good state', (4) visions of democracy, and (5) opinions on what defines political views as being either on the 'left' or on the 'right.' As a result, consistently found across all five domains, there is a strong attitudinal similarity among politicians of differing political parties and of divergent political orientations. This finding is interpreted as reflection of a fundamental 'track similarity' in the way in which Polish politicians perceive the most important tasks confronting the whole political class in times of systemic transformation. 'Transformational correctness' - believing that in such times politicians should have (or at least should display) certain views - might be a strong force behind this similarity." (author's abstract)Es werden ausgewählte Ergebnisse einer größeren Untersuchung maßgeblicher polnischer Politiker präsentiert, und zwar von Mitgliedern des Parlaments von 1993 bis 1997 und Führern von wichtigeren politischen Parteien, die den Einzug in dieses Parlament nicht schafften. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf fünf Aspekte der Einstellungen der Politiker: (1) Meinungen über die Eigenschaften von Personen, die in der Politik tätig sein sollten oder es tatsächlich sind; (2) normativ akzeptierte Definitionen von Politik; (3) Vorstellungen vom "guten Staat"; (4) Vorstellungen von Demokratie; (5) Meinungen über die Einstufung politischer Anschauungen als eher "rechts" oder eher "links". Als Gesamtergebnis stellt sich, und zwar konsistent auf sämtlichen fünf Fragegebieten, eine starke Ähnlichkeit in den Einstellungen von Politikern heraus - über unterschiedliche politische Parteien und divergierende politische Orientierungen hinweg. Die Autoren finden hierin eine grundlegende "Verlaufsähnlichkeit" dahingehend widergespiegelt, wie polnische Politiker die wichtigsten Aufgaben wahrnehmen, die der Politik in Zeiten systemischer Transformation gestellt sind. Als starke Kraft hinter dieser Ähnlichkeit wird ein Phänomen "transformationeller Korrektheit" gesehen - die Überzeugung, daß in derartigen Veränderungszeiten ein Politiker bestimmte Auffassungen haben (oder sie zumindest zum Ausdruck bringen) sollte. (HH

Probleme der Vergleichbarkeit von Bildungszertifikaten in international vergleichenden Untersuchungen

International vergleichende Ungleichheitsanalysen sind nach Einschätzung der Autoren immer mit dem Problem konfrontiert, die sozialen Differenzen im Kontext ihrer kulturellen Umgebung interpretieren zu müssen. Eines der wichtigsten Ziele international vergleichender Forschung ist aus dieser Perspektive die Gewährleistung einer möglichst hohen Äquivalenz der verwendeten Maße. Unter Äquivalenz wird in diesem Zusammenhang weniger die korrekte Übersetzung von Fragen und Begriffen, sondern eher die funktionale Äquivalenz sprachlich adäquater Formulierungen verstanden. Davon abgesehen können sich die Begriffe, die zugrunde liegenden Maßstäbe, die relativen Positionen der gesellschaftlichen Teilgruppen sowie die Bedeutung von Sachverhalten im historischen Verlauf verändern. Um eine möglichst hohe Äquivalenz in international vergleichenden Untersuchungen zu gewährleisten, plädieren die Autoren in ihrem Beitrag für die Verwendung relationaler Ungleichheitsmaße. Sie erörtern am Beispiel der Probleme, die sich beim internationalen Vergleich von Bildungszertifikaten ergeben, die Vorzüge und Probleme dieser Vorgehensweise. Im Gegensatz zu eindimensionalen Bildungsmaßen oder einheitlichen Bildungskategorien wird bei relationalen Bildungsrenditen nicht von einer direkten Vergleichbarkeit der in den verschiedenen Bildungssystemen vorhandenen Bildungsabschlüssen ausgegangen. Indem aus jeweils repräsentativen Erhebungen die jährlichen Zugangschancen zu unterschiedlich hohen Einkommen von mit formalen Bildungszertifikaten ausgestatteten Personen in bestimmten beruflichen Positionen ermittelt werden, kann vielmehr der in verschiedenen Gesellschaften unterschiedliche bzw. sich im Laufe der Zeit verändernde Wert eines Bildungszertifikats berücksichtigt werden. (ICI2

People in networks: Individuals and their social contexts

In this chapter we first present the concept, goals, and significance of our research project. Then we describe the data collection process and the data itself. To conclude, we give a short summary of the subsequent chapters

Perspectives on further analyses

Our further publications will be based on the following types of analyses. First, in terms of empirical research we would like to take a more direct approach in analyzing dyads, triads, and social networks as the elementary units of sociological analysis. Second, we would like to introduce to our empirical analyses a number of variables that were not considered in the present volume. Particular significance is to be assigned to large batteries of psychological variables characterizing egos and alters, as well as to variables characterizing the intensity of their relations from varying perspectives. Third, we would like to introduce some of our empirical findings into the theoretical discussions currently underway in relational sociology. Fourth, we intend to concentrate on issues pertaining to the influence of social circles and networks on individual attributes, with a view to tackling the relations between the networked nature of social life, social inequality, and class structuration in society

Influence of the source of information on homophily assessment: data provided by subjects vs data provided by their confidants

This article was added to the Knowledge Bank in January, 2023.The present article analyses data on ego-centred networks from a nationally representative sample of Polish citizens (egos) and their regular conversation partners (alters). In the study being used, apart from obtaining information from the respondent (the ego) about characteristics of their friends (alters), the respondent was additionally asked to provide contact details for his/her alters and the interviewers traced them. This allows to compare data concerning alters obtained from ego and from alters themselves. In the first part of the article, a comparison for three characteristics – age, education and occupational status – is provided as well as patterned differences are presented. In the second part, the issue whether the assessment of the strength of homophily depends on the source information about the alters is raised. The differences are present, although they are rather slight. The authors observe greater homophily when they rely on the responses of the ego. Based on the results, recommendations for future research on ego-centred networks are formulated

Individuals and their social contexts

This project was financed by the National Science Centre, based on mutual agreement no. DEC-2013/10/M/HS6/00526