The East-Central European post-socialist transformations have now reached a new stage, with the need to address the problems of further modernisation and maintenance in the context of the EU. The role of elites in this process is as intermediators between the influence of the European context and the needs and interests of differentiated internal social structures. Their attitudes and behaviour exhibit a high degree of internal fragmentation and division corresponding to various strategical orientations favouring various societal models. The post-socialist Czech economic elite was initially reproduced out of former state socialist managers and their cadre reserves. After the first phase of economic developments, inspired by neo-liberal radical privatisation and elements of 'shock therapy', and once the new, more European phase ushered in many new factors, there was a distinct decline in the number of 'old-new' economic elite on the scene. In the empirical part of the article the results of several surveys are used to briefly describe the changes in the composition of the Czech economic elite in the 1994-2005 period and to summarise their attitudes and behaviour. The analysis concludes that the current image of a liberal and pro-European Czech elite is consistent with the stable and remarkable progress of the Czech economy since 1999, the considerable wealth, strong profits, and high salaries enjoyed by top elites, and the enhancement of their role in the European economy. There are also some limitations and weak points that diverge from this general picture. The article's conclusions touch on the question of the role of the economic elite in the progress of arriving at more consensual attitudes and behaviour among societal elites as a whole, favouring further economic growth, modernisation and the strengthening of social cohesion in the context of the EU.
The article examines the long-term changes and the age homogamy of marriages that took place in the Czech Republic between 1920 and 2000. The analysis of data acquired from a study of vital registration is divided into a descriptive part - describing the age structure of the marriage market and the absolute degree of age homogamy - and an exploratory part - creating a log-linear model of the structure and changes of relative age homogamy. Three hypotheses are formulated in connection with the latter part of the analysis, of which the hypothesis about increasing age homogamy seems acceptable. Results from the descriptive analysis and the models show that age homogamy has been increasing during the 20th century, both in the case of first marriages and remarriages. The hypothesis about the greater degree of age heterogamy in the case of remarriages can also be accepted, while the testing of the third hypothesis, that the older the marital partners are the more heterogamous their age structure, proved inconclusive and requires further investigation.
The article is conceived as a contribution to a critical reading of opinion data and the presentation of ISSP modules on Work Orientations from 1997 and 2005 in the Czech Republic. In the first part, some methodological problems regarding the inspection of work and job values are presented using examples drawn from previous research. In the second part, the framework of systemic transition is set up and hypotheses are presented regarding work values and attitudes from the perspective of gender and age, education and occupation. In the third part, a comparison is made of people's expectations regarding their work and jobs with their perceived fulfilment. In the fourth part, we consider the perceived location of workers between the distant worlds of family and firms and inspect factors of work and job satisfaction. In conclusion, we discuss the role of subjective perceptions in the economy and the question of a 'true' change in values during the transition.