The Deterioration of Democratic Political Culture: Consequences of the Perception of Inequality
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The Deterioration of Democratic Political Culture: Consequences of the Perception of Inequality Matthew Loveless
Published online: 12 November 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Using survey data from nine East European members of the European Union, I find that citizens’ political and social disengagement is strongly related to their perceptions of inequalities in society. Specifically, individuals’ perceptions that income and social inequalities are excessive clearly coordinates with lower levels of trust and political efficacy, as well as higher levels of both a general suspicion of others and political apathy. This is troubling as these attitudes and orientations are part of what constitute a healthy democratic political culture and thus germane to the long-term legitimacy of both national and EU governance. Further, in contrast to much of the work on inequality, this effect is neither contingent on individuals’ income levels nor clearly linked to national-level economic indicators. Keywords
Inequality Democracy Political culture Political behavior
Introduction Over the past 20 years, market liberalization in the newest European Union (EU) member states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has introduced formal income and social inequality to these states. Common macro-economic indicators suggest that CEE has made developmental progress; however, other indicators suggest that this national-level achievement may not have translated into clear and shared individual-level gains. As such, while inequality may have initially been viewed as an opportunity for these citizens to improve their life chances, increase social mobility, and augment access to broader social and economic goods, it has become M. Loveless (&) School of Politics & International Relations, Rutherford College, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NX, UK e-mail: [email protected]
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Soc Just Res (2013) 26:471–491
increasingly viewed by these same citizens as an institutionalized system of ¨ rkeny excessive disparity (Kelley & Zagorski, 2004; Loveless & Whitefield, 2011; O & Sze´kelyi, 2000). This examination of the impact of inequality on democratic political culture shifts the proposed influence of inequality from the macro-level (objective inequality and aggregate levels of various values and attitudes) to processes as the individual-level. We draw from related works on trust, efficacy, and inequality (e.g., Goodin & Dryzek, 1980; Rothstein & Uslaner, 2005; Uslaner & Brown, 2005) that show higher levels of objective, national-level inequality leads to lower levels of aggregate optimism, weakens shared goals, fosters resentment between classes, and undermines individuals’ sense of control and ability to interact with the world around them (i.e., alienation and isolation). Our contribution is to argue that individuals’ perceptions of inequality better capture how individuals experience inequality and thus better explain variation in the impact of inequality on individuals’ values necessary for he
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