The Middle Class in Czech Society and Research

Disappearing or Forgotten?

Abstract

In the article, the fates of the middle class in Czech society and its reflection in Czech sociology are briefly overviewed. The first part is devoted to interwar Czechoslovakia, which was reflected as a middle-class society by intellectuals and partly also shaped as such by leading politicians. The second part depicts the suppression of the entrepreneurial middle class by the Communist regime and its resurrection in the early 1990s. The third part is concerned with the post-war sociological research of this phenomenon, which has been developed somewhat more during the transition after 1989. Special attention is paid to the subjective perception of social positions and its empirical description. The conclusion reflects various definitions of the middle class, remarks about its political use and raises issues for further sociological research.