Pillér és szubkultúra. A politikai-kulturális tagolódás egy lehetséges fogalmi kerete

The first part of the paper gives an overview of the theories which depict the social-political structure of the Western-European plural societies. Special attention is paid to definitions of such concepts as „political subculture”, „pillar” and „pillarization”. The most important approaches concerning the institutionalized segmentation in the Low Countries (the cradles of the pillarization theory) are contrasted. In the second part it is shown by Dutch and Belgian examples how pillarized systems work in practice. Arguing for the relevance of the subculture/pillar model in Hungary* the author draws attention to the recent proliferation of subculturally bound organizations at the end of the paper. The basic concepts of cultural-political divisions are re-defined in order to make them fit the Hungarian case.