Social Justice and Political Change

by Mason, David S.; Wegener, Bernd; Kluegel, James R.

• ISBN13: 9780202305035
• ISBN10: 0202305031
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-06-01
• Publisher: Aldine De Gruyter

Summary

Analysis and debate about economic and political justice rarely involves research on the views of the common person. Scholars often make assumptions about what common people think is fair, but for the most part they confine their thinking to a single country and argue on rational or moral grounds, with little supporting empirical data. Social Justice and Political Change, involves the collaboration of thirty social scientists in twelve countries, and represents broad-ranging comparative research.The book grows out of a collaborative study of public opinion about social justice. Though conceived prior to the revolutions that swept Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, the ISJP did not put its survey into the field until the summer of 1991, in a new climate of open international exchange in social research. Employing common methods of data collection and, within the limits of translation, identical survey instruments, the ISJP investigated public opinion in seven newly emerging post-Communist countries and five of the world’s most influential capitalist democracies, with special sensitivity to divergencies in the newly united Germany.Among the themes addressed by the volume’s distinguished contributors are the views and beliefs of citizens in the post-Communist states on the transition to market economies and parliamentary democracy; the role of ideology in legitimating inequality; the structural determination of beliefs about justice; the processes that shape individual level evaluations; and the major implications of public opinion and mass participation in the democratic process.

Table of Contents

Project Participants
Preface and Acknowledgments
The International Social Justice Project	p. 1
Distributive Justice: Does It Matter What the People Think?	p. 15
Justice, Socialism, and Participation in the Postcommunist States	p. 49
Justice Beliefs and Support for the Welfare State in Advanced Capitalism	p. 81
Comparative Referential Structures, System Legitimacy, and Justice Sentiments: An International Comparison	p. 109
Justice Evaluation of Income Distribution in East and West	p. 131
Justice Psychophysics in the Real World: Comparing Income Justice and Income Satisfaction in East and West Germany	p. 151
Accounting for the Rich and the Poor: Existential Justice in Comparative Perspective	p. 179
Egalitarian vs. Inegalitarian Principles of Distributive Justice	p. 209
Dominant Ideologies and the Variation of Distributive Justice Norms: A Comparison of East and West Germany, and the United States	p. 239
Hierarchical and Social Closure Conceptions of Distributive Social Justice: A Comparison of East and West Germany	p. 263
The Caring But Unjust Women? A Comparative Study of Gender Differences in Perceptions of Social Justice in Four Countries	p. 285
Appendix: Methods of the International Social Justice Project	p. 321
References	p. 331
Index	p. 351
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