A KAPCSOLATHÁLÓZATI SZEMLÉLET A TÁRSADALOM- ÉS POLITIKATUDOMÁNYBAN
THE SOCIAL NETWORK APPROACH IN THE FIELDS OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Summary/Abstract: The first part of the study deals with the advance of the social network approach in studying political phenomena. While the Columbia school of now classical election studies took account of the social milieu as a significant factor, this line of research lost its influence later on, returning to the fore only in the wake of the recent upswing of social network analysis in its current sense. The paper treats various versions of the application of the network approach in studying political phenomena from political behaviour to institutional interrelationships. The second part presents some pieces of domestic research experience based on the authors’ own research practice in the field of political behaviour, in the first place with types of social and political participation, embedded in its social environment, touching some methodological improvements as well, concerning the application of standard network techniques. Among others, the paper sums up findings on the crystallization of a bloc-like setup and the increasing ideological-electoral polarization of constituencies, with the tendency of a stronger mobilization of voters of opposing camps, which has more or less compensated for the general decrease of political interest. Growing political homophyly with regard to core network relationships has been partly balanced by a more diverse political character of wider circles of acquaintances also on the domestic terrain.

• Details
• Contents