ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a tentative explanation of the difference between the Austrian and Slovak representations in terms of hierarchy between “us” and “them.” The motivation to give in both countries moves between altruism and egoism, but the Slovak respondents differed from the Austrians by emphasizing their professional interest more than the Austrians, who offered stronger moral reasoning. The differences between the Slovaks and Austrians lay in the strength and the amount of politicization voiced by the respondents. The politicization of gender relations deals with unequal relations between men and women, but the micro-power relations lead to an omission of other power relations at different spatial levels. The explanation of the difference with regard to the politicization of unequal power relations could be traced back to the anti-left sentiment that was dominant in the Slovak society and into which the respondents were socialized by the media and the surrounding society.
