Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Two Decades of Value Change: The Crystallization of Meritocratic and Egalitarian Beliefs in the Czech Republic

  • Published:
Social Justice Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 09 November 2012

Abstract

Two decades ago, scholars predicted that the economic and political transformations underway in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe would be accompanied by fundamental shifts in societal values and norms. Unlike political reforms, changes in societal norms were believed to take place gradually, as individuals became increasingly socialized by new institutions and conditions. In this article, we analyze change in a core set of societal norms—beliefs in distributive justice—in the Czech Republic over the last two decades, and locate those trends in regional perspective. What we find is that, over time, the negative association between egalitarian and meritocratic norms has increasingly strengthened, suggesting a crystallization of those norms as opposing value sets. In addition, attachments to those norms are increasingly structured by respondents’ socio-economic status. In order words, the research confirms that subjective norms in the Czech Republic are increasingly shaped by objective social status in ways common in advanced democracies, and that we can speak not only of a crystallization of the value system, but of a corresponding “re-stratification” of justice beliefs in relation to social position.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Graph 1
Graph 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abercrombie, N., Hill, S., & Turner, B. S. (1980). The dominant ideology thesis. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arneson, R. (2006). Luck Egalitarianism: An interpretation and defense. Philosophical Topics, 32, 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arsenson, R. (2007). Desert and equality. In N. Holtug & K. Lippert-Rasmussen (Eds.), Egalitarianism: New essays on the nature and value of equality (pp. 262–293). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arts, W., & Gijsberts, M. (1998). After the velvet revolutions: Altered life-chances, fragile legitimacy, and split-consciousness in post-communist Eastern Europe. Social Justice Research, 11(2), 143–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balcerowitz, L. (1991). Understanding postcommunist transitions. Journal of Democracy, 5(4), 75–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brickman, P., Folger, R., Goode, E., & Schul, Y. (1981). Micro and macro justice. In M. J. Lerner & S. C. Lerner (Eds.), The justice motive in social behavior (pp. 173–202). New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, R. (1989). Democracy and its critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahrendorf, R. (1990). Reflections on the revolutions in Europe. New York: Times Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Della Fave, L. R. (1980). The meek shall not inherit the earth. American Sociological Review, 45, 955–971.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Della Fave, L. R. (1986a). The dialectics of legitimation and counternorms. Sociological Perspectives, 29, 435–460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Della Fave, L. R. (1986b). Toward an explication of the legitimation process. Social Forces, 65, 476–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch, M. (1975). Equity, equality, and need: What determines which value will be used as the basis of distributive justice? Journal of Social Issues, 31, 137–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, R. (2000). Sovereign virtue: The theory and practice of equality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eyal, G., Szelényi, I., & Townsley, E. (1998). Making capitalism without capitalists. The new ruling elites in Eastern Europe. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text, 25(26), 56–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerlitz, J.-Y., Mühleck, K., Scheller, P., & Schrenker, M. (2012). Justice perceptions in times of transition. Trends in Germany 1991–2006. European Sociological Review, 28(2), 263–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gijsberts, M. (2002). The legitimation of income inequality in state-socialist and market societies. Acta Sociologica, 45(4), 269–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huber, J., & Form, W. H. (1973). Income and ideology. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jasso, G. (1998). Studying justice: Cross-country data for empirical justice analysis. Social Justice Research, 11(2), 193–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaltenhaler, K., Ceccoli, S., & Gelleny, R. (2008). Attitudes toward eliminating income inequality in Europe. European Union Politics, 9(2), 217–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, J., & Zagorski, K. (2004). Economic change and the legitimation of inequality: The transition from socialism to the free market in Poland and Hungary, 1987–1994. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 22, 319–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kluegel, J., & Mason, D. (2004). Fairness matters: Social justice and political legitimacy in post-communist Europe. Europe-Asia Studies, 56(6), 813–834.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kluegel, J., Mason, D., & Wegener, B. (Eds.). (1995). Social justice and political change: Public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states. Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluegel, J., Mason, D., & Wegener, B. (1999). The legitimation of capitalism in the postcommunist transition. Public opinion about market justice, 1991–1996. European Sociological Review, 15(3), 251–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kluegel, J., & Matějů, P. (1995). Principles of distributive justice in comparative perspective. In J. Kluegel, D. Mason, & B. Wegener (Eds.), Social justice and political change: Public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states (pp. 209–238). Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kluegel, J., & Smith, E. R. (1981). Beliefs about stratification. Annual Review of Sociology, 7, 29–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kluegel, J., & Smith, E. R. (1986). Beliefs about inequality: American views of what is and what ought to be. Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liebig, S. (2001). Lessons from philosophy? Interdisciplinary justice research and two classes of justice judgments. Social Justice Research, 14(3), 265–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loveless, M., & Whitefield, S. (2011). Being unequal and seeing inequality: Explaining the political significance of social inequality in new market democracies. European Journal of Political Research, 50, 239–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, D. (1995). Justice, socialism, and participation in the postcommunist states. In J. Kluegel, D. Mason, & B. Wegener (Eds.), Social justice and political change: Public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states (pp. 49–80). Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mason, D., & Kluegel, J. (2000). Introduction: Public opinion and political change in the post-communist states. In D. Mason & J. Kluegel (Eds.), Marketing democracy: Changing opinion about inequality and politics in east central Europe (pp. 1–25). Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matějů, P. (1996). In search of explanations for recent left-turns in post-communist countries. International Review of Comparative Public Policy, 7, 43–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matějů, P. (1997). Beliefs about distributive justice and social change. Czech Republic 1991–1995. Working Papers of the research project “Social trends” 6/1997. Prague: Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

  • Matějů, P., & Lim, N. (1995). Who has gotten ahead after the fall of communism? The case of the Czech Republic. Czech Sociological Review, 3(2), 117–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matějů, P., & Řeháková, B. (1997). Turning left or class realignment. Analysis of the changing relationship between class and party in the Czech Republic, 1992–1996. East-European Politics and Societies, 11(3), 507–547.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. (2001). Principles of social justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state, and Utopia. Oxford: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okun, A. (1975). Equality and efficiency: The big tradeoff. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orkeny, A. (2000). Trends in the perception of social inequality in Hungary, 1991–1996. In D. Mason & J. Kluegel (Eds.), Martketing democracy: Changing opinion about inequality and politics in east central Europe (pp. 98–121). Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Przeworksi, A. (1991). Democracy and the market: Political and economic reforms in eastern Europe and latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rakowski, E. (1991). Equal justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritzman, R. L., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (1992). Life chances and support for equality and equity as normative and counternormative distribution rules. Social Forces, 70, 745–763.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roemer, J. (1998). Equality of opportunity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J., Matland, R., Michelbach, P., & Bornstein, B. (2001). Just deserts: An experimental study of distributive justice norms. American Journal of Political Science, 45(4), 749–767.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (1979). Inequality of What? The tanner lecture on human values. Stanford: Stanford University.

  • Sen, A. (1992). The equality of what? The tanner lecture on human values. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepelak, N. (1987). The role of self-explanation and self-evaluation in legitimating inequality. American Sociological Review, 52, 495–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. (2010). Perceived corruption, distributive justice, and the legitimacy of the system of social stratification in the Czech Republic. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 43(4), 439–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallentyne, P. (2003). Equality and justice. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verwiebe, R., & Wegener, B. (2000). Social inequality and the perceived income justice gap. Social Justice Research, 13(2), 123–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walster, E., & Walster, G. W. (1975). Equity and social justice. Journal of Social Issues, 31, 21–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walzer, M. (1984). Spheres of justice: A defense of pluralism and equality. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegener, B., & Liebig, S. (1992). Dominant ideologies and the variation of justice norms: A comparison of east Germany, west Germany, and the United States. In B. Wegener, D. Mason, & J. Kluegel (Eds.), Social justice and political change: Public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states (pp. 239–262). Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegener, B., & Liebig, S. (1995). Hierarchical and social closure conceptions of distributive social justice: A comparison of east and west Germany. In J. Kluegel, D. Mason, & B. Wegener (Eds.), Social justice and political change: Public opinion in capitalist and post-communist states (pp. 263–284). Hawthorne: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegener, B., & Liebig, S. (2000). Is the ‘Inner Wall’ here to stay? Justice ideologies in unified Germany. Social Justice Research, 13(2), 177–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The work of the first author on the article was made possible with the institutional support of the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO: 68378025). The work of the second author on the article was supported by the Internal Grant System of the University of Finance and Administration in Prague (project IGA 7741).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jilská 1, Praha 1, 11000, Czech Republic

    Michael L. Smith

  2. University of Finance and Administration, Estonská 500, Prague 10, 10100, Czech Republic

    Petr Matějů

Authors
  1. Michael L. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Petr Matějů
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael L. Smith.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 5

Table 5 Descriptive statistics for the six justice beliefs examined
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Smith, M.L., Matějů, P. Two Decades of Value Change: The Crystallization of Meritocratic and Egalitarian Beliefs in the Czech Republic. Soc Just Res 25, 421–439 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-012-0164-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-012-0164-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation