Elites and the Idea of Equality

Verba, Sidney; Kelman, Steven; Orren, Gary R.; Miyake, Ichiro; Watanuki, Jōji; Kabashima, Ikuo; Ferree, G. Donald

doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674864740

Cited by 16 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Our findings also suggest that social values may account for cross-national variation in elite or political party positions. For example, Sidney Verba et al (1987) found substantive variation among political elites who come from parties with the same ideological orientations or those with similar interests (such as labour union leaders), with the more egalitarian Swedish political elites being more supportive of redistribution than American and Japanese elites. Stefan Svallfors (1997) notes that the Norwegian Conservative Party is much less right-wing than its Swedish counterpart Moderate Party, which may again be explained by the higher emphasis given to egalitarianism in Norway compared to Sweden.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Values and Cross-National Differences in Attitudes towards Welfare

Arıkan

Bloom

2014

Political Studies

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Studies on public opinion about welfare already acknowledge the role context plays in individual attitudes towards welfare. However, the much-debated effect of socially held values and beliefs on attitudes towards social policy has not been empirically investigated. Drawing on studies in political and social psychology, as well as Shalom Schwartz's work on universal human values, this article argues that social values, specifically egalitarianism and embeddedness, affect individual support for social welfare policies. Moreover, we posit that social values condition the effect that individual ideological orientations have on attitudes towards government responsibility, such that the effect of embeddedness is much stronger for right-wing and moderate identifiers than those who lean towards the left. We test our hypotheses using data from the European Social Surveys (ESS) and International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) Role of Government module and employing multi-level modelling. Our results provide evidence of the importance of social context and shared values in influencing attitudes towards welfare.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Values and Cross-National Differences in Attitudes towards Welfare

Arıkan

Bloom

2014

Political Studies

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“…There is growing evidence that large economic inequalities may also lead to political inequalities, thus affecting the potential of democracy to equitably represent the voices of the citizenry (American Political Science Association, 2004; Putnam, 2015; Verba et al, 1987). Merit has become a much-prevailing criterion for assigning goods and rewards in contemporary society (Hadjar, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Economic Elites’ Attitudes Toward Meritocracy in Chile: A Moral Economy Perspective

Atria

Castillo

Maldonado

et al. 2020

American Behavioral Scientist

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We analyze economic elites’ perceptions and beliefs about meritocracy from a moral economy perspective. A moral economy perspective considers how norms and beliefs structure socioeconomic practices through the constitution and expression of what is considered acceptable, proper, and legitimate. Our study explores how economic elites make sense of the roles of talent and effort in the distribution of resources and how they reconcile the idea of meritocracy within a rigid social order. The site of our study is Chile, a country with fluid mobility between low and middle classes, but with high and persistent disparities and strong barriers to elite positions. We conducted 44 semistructured interviews with shareholders, board members, and high-level executives of large or high-turnover companies in three major Chilean cities. We find that the economic elite strongly support meritocracy but explain access to top positions based on talent rather than effort. The economic elite define talent in terms of business and leadership skills. They attribute upward mobility in the private sector to meritocratic practice. At the same time, they view the public sector as the epitome of nonmeritocratic practices, incompetence, and inefficiency. They profess empathy with the poor, but they reject redistributive policies. The economic elite believe in the primacy of competition in economic life and the necessity of continual economic growth, and thus, they understand meritocracy as both the means to survive in a market economy and a responsible approach to lead national development.

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Psychological perspectives on justice: Theory and applications

Kluegel

1995

Soc Just Res

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In the spirit of making background "assumptions" clear for the purpose of assessing the "justice" of this review, one should know that I am a sociologist reviewing work by psychologists. On the one hand, this is a disadvantage in that I do not know the range of psychological work as well as a psychologist doing justice research. However, as a sociological social psychologist who has done extensive research on popular justice beliefs and values, I am able to offer some comments on the place and relevance of work in this volume in the broader field of justice studies.Before using this book as a springboard to comment on psychological research on justice, let me give a few comments about it specifically. This is a first-rate contribution to justice studies, and should be read by any student of the public's evaluation of justice. Most of the 13 primary chapters provide useful summaries and critical syntheses of major contemporary psychological perspectives on justice. They also give results of original research. In combination they provide a review of the important theory and past research leading to the present state of psychological research on justice, and they show us the current directions of active research.We all are familiar with calls to make the social sciences more interdisciplinary, although few areas of our theory and research are so. Justice studies is likely the single most interdisciplinary area in the social sciences, calling upon economics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology. Books such as Psychological Perspectives on Justice are very valuable to those seeking to keep abreast of justice theory and research in disciplines other than their own. I recommend it for use in graduate level courses 1University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 421 0885-7466/95/12(10-0421507.50/0 9 1995 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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Elites and the Idea of Equality

Cited by 16 publications

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Social Values and Cross-National Differences in Attitudes towards Welfare

Social Values and Cross-National Differences in Attitudes towards Welfare

Economic Elites’ Attitudes Toward Meritocracy in Chile: A Moral Economy Perspective

Psychological perspectives on justice: Theory and applications

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