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Elite consensus and political polarization: cases from Central Europe
litenkonsens und Politische Polarisierung: Fälle aus Mitteleuropa
[journal article]
Abstract "The concept of 'elite consensus' is pivotal to the work of John Higley and his associates, but like many key political concepts its meaning is not precise. Consensus implies broad agreement, but just how much agreement, over what matters, among whom (i.e., who are the relevant elites), and how endu... view more
"The concept of 'elite consensus' is pivotal to the work of John Higley and his associates, but like many key political concepts its meaning is not precise. Consensus implies broad agreement, but just how much agreement, over what matters, among whom (i.e., who are the relevant elites), and how enduring remain to be specified. Higley et al. recognize these problems, placing their emphasis on procedural rather than substantive agreement and granting that individual cases may lie somewhere on the borderline between elite consensus and disunity. In this essay I explore the consensus issue by examining several cases from East Central Europe and that of Germany in the aftermath of the fall of Communism. Higley and Burton see especially in the Polish and Hungarian 'roundtables' instances of near-contemporary 'elite settlements.' But in both cases observers have recently pointed to a degree of political polarization whose intensity seems to call into question the actual achievement of elite consensus and indeed of 'democratic consolidation.' I assess these apparently conflicting perspectives by examining the divergent views of the new political institutions and of the legitimacy of one another held by rival elites in Poland and Hungary and compare the cases of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany." (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
post-socialist country; electoral system; Federal Republic of Germany; legitimation; elite research; Slovakia; political actor; constitution; political elite; transformation; Europe; democratization; Czech Republic; Godesberg Program (SPD); elite; Central Europe; polarization; Poland; political system; East Central Europe; consensus; Hungary
Classification
General History
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Method
theory application; qualitative empirical; empirical; historical
Document language
English
Publication Year
2012
Page/Pages
p. 90-106
Journal
Historical Social Research, 37 (2012) 1
Issue topic
Elite foundations of social theory and politics / Elitetheoretische Grundlagen sozialwissenschaftlicher Theoriebildung und politischer Analyse
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.37.2012.1.90-106
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed