In capitalist society, economic elite plays a central role in institutional functioning and structural reproduction of the social system. When an economic elite emerges during the process of transition to capitalism, observing its consolidation becomes even more important for understanding its structure and social dynamic. Describing the process of conversion of local, post-communist elites into transnational capitalist class (Sklair) becomes one of the crucial areas of sociological analysis of elites. The aim of a presentation is to report the results of qualitative research on business elites in Poland (2013-2015) and quantitative analysis of elites in Hungary, Poland and Russia.
Qualitative part of presentation will be focused on the problem of social background and values of a new economic elite. Two kinds of structural analysis (Levi-Strauss) (Propp) of individual in-depth interviews performed with owners and managers of leading companies of contemporary Polish economy, allow to show, how diversified social background is unified into consistent set of values during the process of economic transition. Observing structural tensions that arise during this process helps to grasp how symbolic struggle in power elite, characteristic for Central-Eastern European tension between cosmopolitism and local autonomy (Zarycki) is represented in rivalry between managers and entrepreneurs in economic field (Bourdieu) in Poland.
Quantitative part of presentation aims on describing the dynamic of structure of emerging business elite in Poland, Hungary and Russia. Analysis of graphs, representing relations between the wealth of entrepreneurs, analysis of vertex degree distribution, centrality degrees and transitivity of graphs allows to sketch the structure of elite in Poland, Hungary and Russia. Comparison of two periods: 2002-2008 and 2008-2015 will help to identify the dual influence: integrating and disintegrating,the Crisis had on business elite structure in these countries.
Both kinds of data, qualitative and quantitative will be used to describe the dynamic of consolidation in emerging business elite. This might help to elaborate the analytic scheme of emergence, accumulation and reproduction of elites, that could be useful tool for social and political scientists dealing with politics and social structure in transition and semi-peripheral economies.
