Age and Czechs' Attitudes Toward the Postcommunist Economic Reforms

Abstract

The connection between age and attitudes toward social change has been a longstanding research interest in the United States. Hypotheses derived from this tradition are tested in the Czech Republic, a country undergoing a societal transformation since 1989. We have utilized eleven national surveys from 1990–1998, allowing an examination not only of the association between age and opinions about the Czech postcommunist reforms but also of the change in these relations during the survey period. Specifically, we first examine how respondents' age is related to their recent economic experiences and the interaction between age and the phase of the reforms on these experiences, net of demographic controls. The association between age and respondents' anxiety about the Czech reforms is the second focus, with tests for the interaction between age and time on this anxiety; controls include economic experiences. Then we examine the relation between age and respondents' support for the economic reforms, again with tests for the interaction between age and time, while controlling for anxiety as well. Older Czechs were generally more conservative about the reforms, net of their economic experiences and anxiety about them, and these age differences did not change with the phases of the reforms.