ABSTRACT
‘There were periods of Greek history in which a balance was maintained in class relations, periods in which the social polarization, i.e. the existence of extreme poverty and pronounced wealth, was small. In these periods the attempts to bring about social and economic changes were rare, and constituted a merely marginal phenomenon in the life of Greece. But there were times in which the inequality deepened, the economic and social gulf widened, and social polarization increased.’ This citation of a book (Fuks, 1984), written by a historian, on social tensions in ancient Greece illustrates well the various ways in which the concept of polarization may be understood. Polarization is linked to inequality, extreme poverty, pronounced wealth and economic and social gulfs. The author stresses also the fact that in the absence of polarization social and economic changes were rare. We have indeed here all the ingredients necessary to grasp the way polarization is apprehended today, at least by economists.
