Search results

Economic liberalization, privatization and the process of accumulation of the initial capital in post-socialist societies have led to formation of the section of private owners which seemingly disappeared in the course of socialist transformations. As a new social phenomenon which is to be called, the new section of private owners, especially those which possess the essential by scale means of production, started acquiring various notions. As a rule sociologists, using the Marxist methodology, continue calling this section bourgeoisie or capitalists. Marxism defined capitalists as representatives of the ruling bourgeois class, which possess capital and obtain the surplus value by exploitation of employed labor. The major task of the paper is to analyze the notions belonging to the category of owners of the big private business and their correlation according to the criteria of social stratification, which distinguish such a phenomenon as availability of social subjects (that is social subjectness) in the post-socialist transformations. The communities and groups which perform concrete functions in the social structure of the society are defined as its social subjects. The social group which appears as the independent and active one in the social, economic or political sphere is considered the social subject. The social subject is, first of all, characterized by certain ways of the action and consciousness common for the social group. In so doing the social subject is distinguished by the corresponding values, interests, demands and life style.The analysis of the notions which determine the social group of the owners of big private business has shown that the term capitalists, which is widely used in the present western sociology, is the most acceptable one for the scope of this section. At the same time this term has a negative and ideologized shade in the post-socialist societies. The terms businessman and bourgeois, besides emphasizing the business and class aspects of social stratification, have other meanings that may cause the terminological confusion. On the other hand, to define this section one can use the term owners of big business which reflects adequately the main categories of operationalization of this social group in post-socialist societies, i. e.: 1) the origin of economic and social assets (inherited or earned), degree of their transformation into rent; 2) economic potential of the group (the scale of wealth, property and level of incomes); 3) political and social potential of the group (the scope of power and management functions); 4) socio-cultural potential (the level and character of education, qualification, values and ideology, etc.). All these criteria reflect simultaneously the subjectness of this political group in the society. ; Стаття присвячена аналізу проблеми категоріального охоплення соціальної групи великих власників. Автор зазначає, що найбільш прийнятним є термін «капіталісти», яке має широкий вжиток у сучасній західній соціології. Водночас, цей термін у постсоціалістичних суспільствах має негативний та заідеологізований відтінок. Терміни «підприємець» і «буржуа» крім позначення бізнесових та класових аспектів соціальної стратифікації мають й інші значення, що може викликати термінологічну плутанину. Тому для позначення цієї групи можна користуватися терміном «власники крупного капіталу», який адекватно відображає основні критерії операціоналізації цієї соціальної групи у постсоціалістичних суспільствах.