From Destratification to Stratification? The Development of the Social Stratification System in the Czech Republic, 1991 - 2009

The project aims at corroborating the “value lag hypothesis,” according which further consolidation of the social stratification system in the Czech Republic will depend more on the crystallization of its normative background (values and norms) rather than on development in its objective dimension (inequality). Prior research carried out by the principal investigator and his team shows that the social stratification system in the Czech Republic has gone through three key phases, with each phase involving different dynamics in its objective and subjective dimensions. Both the secondary data analysis and new comparative survey planned to be carried out in 2009 will be used to assess the validity of the assumption that while the economic transition has almost reached completion, the ‘value transition’ towards a system of meritocratic beliefs has not. This tension in the stratification system may be the underlying cause of a wide range of significant social and political phenomena, such as widespread negative attitudes towards economic elites, the continued strong role of reciprocity networks, rampant corruption, and eroded patterns of beliefs about life-success among both the adult population and adolescents.