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The article aims at analyzing the dimension of history in the neo-scholastic conception of the European integration. The research focuses on R. Schuman's vision of the European integration. He was among the politicians who created the first European communities. His political thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the famous French philosopher J. Maritain and the pope Pius XII who both cherished the historical ideal of the European integration, based on the Christian philosophy of history. The main incentive for undertaking this kind of research was the wish to find an alternative intellectual and theoretical position that would not be based on the historicist principles of modernity and enlightenment. Eventually, such position could enhance the poor reflectivity of today`s European integration theory. The analysis of the neo-scholastic European unification idea revealed that all three authors grounded their understanding of history in onto-existential epistemology of Thomism. Its main claim is twofold. First, every historical moment is perceived as a reference to the underlying reality that is not dependent upon historical flow and endows it with spiritual meaning. Second, at the very moment of perceiving the temporal circumstances and grasping their underlying transcendental reality, the moral requirements for the concrete historical moment are discovered. J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman withdrew their ideas of European unification and Christian heritage of Europe from this Thomistic conception of history and the onto-existential epistemology. It is sustained that the results of the undertaken analysis can open qualitatively new theoretical perspectives in the European integration theory and thus help to create a more meaningful Europe. First of all, such a non-historicist position of looking at the process of European integration can provide one condition that is necessary for every true scientific enquiry: it can help to create a theoretical distance among the knowing subject and the known reality. Second, the Christian conception of a human person, which was held by J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman, is able at least to stimulate the raising of the most fundamental questions about the true nature and goals of European unification. Third, the analysis has demonstrated that the issue of the Christian heritage of Europe is important and cannot be ignored, because it is a historical fact and not only a lofty idea.

The article aims at analyzing the dimension of history in the neo-scholastic conception of the European integration. The research focuses on R. Schuman's vision of the European integration. He was among the politicians who created the first European communities. His political thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the famous French philosopher J. Maritain and the pope Pius XII who both cherished the historical ideal of the European integration, based on the Christian philosophy of history. The main incentive for undertaking this kind of research was the wish to find an alternative intellectual and theoretical position that would not be based on the historicist principles of modernity and enlightenment. Eventually, such position could enhance the poor reflectivity of today`s European integration theory. The analysis of the neo-scholastic European unification idea revealed that all three authors grounded their understanding of history in onto-existential epistemology of Thomism. Its main claim is twofold. First, every historical moment is perceived as a reference to the underlying reality that is not dependent upon historical flow and endows it with spiritual meaning. Second, at the very moment of perceiving the temporal circumstances and grasping their underlying transcendental reality, the moral requirements for the concrete historical moment are discovered. J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman withdrew their ideas of European unification and Christian heritage of Europe from this Thomistic conception of history and the onto-existential epistemology. It is sustained that the results of the undertaken analysis can open qualitatively new theoretical perspectives in the European integration theory and thus help to create a more meaningful Europe. First of all, such a non-historicist position of looking at the process of European integration can provide one condition that is necessary for every true scientific enquiry: it can help to create a theoretical distance among the knowing subject and the known reality. Second, the Christian conception of a human person, which was held by J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman, is able at least to stimulate the raising of the most fundamental questions about the true nature and goals of European unification. Third, the analysis has demonstrated that the issue of the Christian heritage of Europe is important and cannot be ignored, because it is a historical fact and not only a lofty idea.

The article aims at analyzing the dimension of history in the neo-scholastic conception of the European integration. The research focuses on R. Schuman's vision of the European integration. He was among the politicians who created the first European communities. His political thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the famous French philosopher J. Maritain and the pope Pius XII who both cherished the historical ideal of the European integration, based on the Christian philosophy of history. The main incentive for undertaking this kind of research was the wish to find an alternative intellectual and theoretical position that would not be based on the historicist principles of modernity and enlightenment. Eventually, such position could enhance the poor reflectivity of today`s European integration theory. The analysis of the neo-scholastic European unification idea revealed that all three authors grounded their understanding of history in onto-existential epistemology of Thomism. Its main claim is twofold. First, every historical moment is perceived as a reference to the underlying reality that is not dependent upon historical flow and endows it with spiritual meaning. Second, at the very moment of perceiving the temporal circumstances and grasping their underlying transcendental reality, the moral requirements for the concrete historical moment are discovered. J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman withdrew their ideas of European unification and Christian heritage of Europe from this Thomistic conception of history and the onto-existential epistemology. It is sustained that the results of the undertaken analysis can open qualitatively new theoretical perspectives in the European integration theory and thus help to create a more meaningful Europe. First of all, such a non-historicist position of looking at the process of European integration can provide one condition that is necessary for every true scientific enquiry: it can help to create a theoretical distance among the knowing subject and the known reality. Second, the Christian conception of a human person, which was held by J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman, is able at least to stimulate the raising of the most fundamental questions about the true nature and goals of European unification. Third, the analysis has demonstrated that the issue of the Christian heritage of Europe is important and cannot be ignored, because it is a historical fact and not only a lofty idea.

The article aims at analyzing the dimension of history in the neo-scholastic conception of the European integration. The research focuses on R. Schuman's vision of the European integration. He was among the politicians who created the first European communities. His political thought was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the famous French philosopher J. Maritain and the pope Pius XII who both cherished the historical ideal of the European integration, based on the Christian philosophy of history. The main incentive for undertaking this kind of research was the wish to find an alternative intellectual and theoretical position that would not be based on the historicist principles of modernity and enlightenment. Eventually, such position could enhance the poor reflectivity of today`s European integration theory. The analysis of the neo-scholastic European unification idea revealed that all three authors grounded their understanding of history in onto-existential epistemology of Thomism. Its main claim is twofold. First, every historical moment is perceived as a reference to the underlying reality that is not dependent upon historical flow and endows it with spiritual meaning. Second, at the very moment of perceiving the temporal circumstances and grasping their underlying transcendental reality, the moral requirements for the concrete historical moment are discovered. J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman withdrew their ideas of European unification and Christian heritage of Europe from this Thomistic conception of history and the onto-existential epistemology. It is sustained that the results of the undertaken analysis can open qualitatively new theoretical perspectives in the European integration theory and thus help to create a more meaningful Europe. First of all, such a non-historicist position of looking at the process of European integration can provide one condition that is necessary for every true scientific enquiry: it can help to create a theoretical distance among the knowing subject and the known reality. Second, the Christian conception of a human person, which was held by J. Maritain, Pius XII, and R. Schuman, is able at least to stimulate the raising of the most fundamental questions about the true nature and goals of European unification. Third, the analysis has demonstrated that the issue of the Christian heritage of Europe is important and cannot be ignored, because it is a historical fact and not only a lofty idea.

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section - Rūta Brazienė's 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article's empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber's classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx's theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches - Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania's class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality [.]

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section - Rūta Brazienė's 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article's empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber's classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx's theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches - Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania's class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality [.]

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section - Rūta Brazienė's 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article's empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber's classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx's theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches - Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania's class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality [.]

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section - Rūta Brazienė's 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article's empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber's classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx's theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches - Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania's class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality [.]

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section - Rūta Brazienė's 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article's empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber's classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx's theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches - Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania's class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality [.]

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section - Rūta Brazienė's 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article's empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber's classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx's theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is compared with two other approaches - Erik Olin Wright's neo-Marxist class theory, which emphasises exploitation relations between classes, and American social stratification analysis, which focuses on the measurement of socio-economic status (SES). The third section offers a neo-Weberian examination of post-Communist Lithuania's class structure, represented by four different EGP class types. Diachronic and synchronic comparisons and historical analysis are used to point out the features of Lithuanian class structure that are shared with other similar countries and those features that are nationally specific. To this end, data from Round 4 of the European Social Survey in Lithuania (conducted at the end of 2009) is used. In the last section, which applies statistical methods of correspondence analysis, a slightly modified EGP class model is used to explore manifestations of social inequality [.]

The phenomenon of German neo-liberalism as a peculiar political–economic doctrine which became popular after World War II is analysed in the context of the ideology of neo-liberalism. Attempts have been made to show historical and cultural conditions which favoured the implementation of the ideas developed by W. Eucken, theoretician of the German neo-liberalism, and the representatives of the Freiburg school. The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities that make this economic thought different from classical neo-liberalism and have stimulated the development of the economy in post-war West Germany.

The phenomenon of German neo-liberalism as a peculiar political–economic doctrine which became popular after World War II is analysed in the context of the ideology of neo-liberalism. Attempts have been made to show historical and cultural conditions which favoured the implementation of the ideas developed by W. Eucken, theoretician of the German neo-liberalism, and the representatives of the Freiburg school. The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities that make this economic thought different from classical neo-liberalism and have stimulated the development of the economy in post-war West Germany.

The phenomenon of German neo-liberalism as a peculiar political–economic doctrine which became popular after World War II is analysed in the context of the ideology of neo-liberalism. Attempts have been made to show historical and cultural conditions which favoured the implementation of the ideas developed by W. Eucken, theoretician of the German neo-liberalism, and the representatives of the Freiburg school. The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities that make this economic thought different from classical neo-liberalism and have stimulated the development of the economy in post-war West Germany.

The phenomenon of German neo-liberalism as a peculiar political–economic doctrine which became popular after World War II is analysed in the context of the ideology of neo-liberalism. Attempts have been made to show historical and cultural conditions which favoured the implementation of the ideas developed by W. Eucken, theoretician of the German neo-liberalism, and the representatives of the Freiburg school. The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities that make this economic thought different from classical neo-liberalism and have stimulated the development of the economy in post-war West Germany.

The phenomenon of German neo-liberalism as a peculiar political–economic doctrine which became popular after World War II is analysed in the context of the ideology of neo-liberalism. Attempts have been made to show historical and cultural conditions which favoured the implementation of the ideas developed by W. Eucken, theoretician of the German neo-liberalism, and the representatives of the Freiburg school. The aim of the paper is to identify the peculiarities that make this economic thought different from classical neo-liberalism and have stimulated the development of the economy in post-war West Germany.