Over sociale ongelijkheid. Vooruitgang in het naoorlogse socialistische denken?

Samenvatting

Discussed are the nature & quality of social inequality theories on which politicians depend, & to what extent those of the Dutch Scientific Council for Governmental Policy (WRR) are better. The relationship between politics & science is analyzed within the critical rationalism framework which assumes that all politicians are theoreticians. The 1977 WRR report Over sociale ongelijkheid (On Social Inequality) is discussed within the background of revisionist historical materialism. An explanation of revisionist thinking on social inequality as it developed after World War II is explained, & empirical difficulties which appeared around 1965 are described. New revisionist hypotheses developed after 1965 are presented & their superiority over previous hypotheses examined. Finally, the possibility of combining revisionist hypotheses with other recent sociological theories is examined. A. Orianne.