The gardener, the doctor and the wine-cooper

Kisvárosi rendszerváltozás és a helyi hatalmi elit

Abstract

Sociologists, politologist hold an often serious and fierce controversy in the public and in the political press whether there has been a factual transformation of the social structures after 1989-90-es, or merely a replacement of the elite. Some maintain the view that there has been a constitutional regime change, but hardly any replacement of the elite. In this study we try to provide the reader with some additional information to the polemic on what kind of developments occurred in the eighties and nineties in the political elite of a small town, Makó by using the tools of the report-sociography. According to the author when examining the aspects of the regime change in a small town, we should not focus on trying to fit the different social situations within the boundaries of a single theory, rather to draw a map of the old and new political elite, nomenclature of small towns, and career path of the members of this elite (based on the research in Makó and researches to be followed in other small towns). For this purpose, the method of report-sociography might be an appropriate tool.