The conventional view takes societies as contexts for studying social
behaviour, and this view is not challenged. Yet another candidate is proposed
as subunit of comparisons across Europe with considerable explanatory power,
namely the classes. At least they may delineate areas for defining the ‘logic
of the situation’ for larger groups of collective actors. Alas, not only
‘classes’. As Erwin K. Scheuch once framed it: “Once the dependent
variable is sufficiently clear, theoretical imagination can be devoted to the
independent variables.” We should not forget the lessons from multivariate
analyses. There is a class-scheme, however, which has displayed its explanatory
power in many comparative studies in European societies, namely the Erikson-Goldthorpe
scheme. Without disqualifying á priori other operationalizations, as the Erik
O. Wright scheme, the claim is made that the Goldthorpe scheme has
already proven predictive power and its ‘construct and criterion validity’ is
obviously researched on.
Acutely arguing in favor of the Goldthorpe classes for Germany and to
test their explanatory power, we presume that life-style groupings in most
cases are a corollary of classes. This has been the result of studies in other
European societies, notably Britain (but also France), but somehow Germans do
not want to tackle it. May be soon they will have to, since it becomes obvious
that state distributions become a zero-sum game!
In reviewing the strength of class-based behaviour, some hypotheses
arise why it might also be useful for the post-socialist societies of Central
Eastern Europe. Arguably, these societies undergo a transformation from
‘estatist societies’ (“Ständeordnung”- W. Teckenberg) to class
societies. With the advent of a ‘structure free neo-liberal capitalism’ in CEE
societies, those late-comers to the club might eventually never arrive in a
class-formative order. It is argued, nevertheless, as to why collective class
actors might have some positive impacts on collective bargaining processes and
last but not least, policy making processes: Structures are constraining
(collective actors) as well as enabling (class action).