Conceptions of Justice and Economic Inequality in a Comparative Cross-Country Context

ABSTRACT

Social justice has rarely been studied using empirical data, and this is especially true in a comparative context. This article analyzes the causes of the methodological and theoretical difficulties that complicate the performance of a comparative cross-country study of this key concept within a social science framework. Based on the data of the European Social Survey (ESS), we analyze how citizens of Russia and other European countries conceptualize the role of the state in the distribution of public resources and establishment of social justice, and we analyze the mechanisms that are used to implement this system and the results of this process.

KEYWORDS:

• inequality in Russia
• public opinion in Russia
• social justice in Russia

This article is the republished version of:

Conceptions of Justice and Economic Inequality in a Comparative Cross-Country Context

Notes

English translation © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2017 “Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’.” “Predstavleniia o spravedlivosti i ekonomicheskom neravenstve v sravnitel’nom mezhstranovom kontekste” Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’, 2017, no. 5, pp. 18–30.

Anna V. Andreenkova, candidate of political sciences, is deputy director at the Institute for Comparative Social Research (CESSI), and director of the European Social Survey (ESS) in Russia ([email protected]).

This article was made possible by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 16-23-19004 “Social Values and Attitudes Concerning the Social State, Social Justice, and Environmental Consciousness in Europe and Russia”).

Translated by Kenneth Cargill. Translation reprinted from Sociological Research, vol. 57, nos. 5-6. DOI: 10.1080/10610154.2018.1688082.