Teorijske refleksije o mogućim uzrocima inertnosti egalitarnog sindroma
Theoretical Reflections on the Possible Causes of Egalitarian Syndrome Inertia

Summary/Abstract: One of the basic propositions of Josip Županov’s Egalitarian Syndrome Theory, the proposition of the egalitarian syndrome as a cluster of inherited informal norms, is compatible with several theoretical concepts of cultural inertia. From the perspective of Path Dependence theories, persistence of the egalitarian syndrome can be explained by the agency of factors responsible for the reproduction of social norms. These factors are not responsible for the genesis of a certain social phenomenon (for example, the norms), but rather for its reproduction over time. According to the results of recent empirical studies, one of the factors of egalitarian syndrome reproduction could be found in the costs of transition. On this basis, as well as on the basis of the proposition of a differentiation between the generative and the reproductive factors of social phenomena, we legitimise a thesis stating that the costs of transition did not create the egalitarian syndrome in a post-socialist social context, but rather contributed to its persistence. Possible sources of hypotheses about additional reproductive factors of the egalitarian syndrome in transitional circumstances are provided by the concept of cultural inertia that stems from the theoretical perspective of institutionalism, Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson’s theory of cultural evolution, as well as Michael Tomasello’s ratchet concept. Furthermore, in accordance with Albert Hirschman’s idea of a “tunnel effectˮ, we can assume that the expected social mobility stagnation could be a specific factor of egalitarian syndrome reproduction.

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