Routledge Social Justice and Political Change: Public Opinion in Capitalist and Post-communist States (Social Problems and Social Issues (Walter Hardcover))

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 worldi?1/2s most influential capitalist democracies, with special sensitivity to divergencies in the newly united Germany. Among the themes addressed by the volumei?1/2s 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. Review -There have been few ambitious, large-scale international collaborative efforts at data collection in the past decade of the sort that are described in this edited volume by Kluegel, Mason and Wegener. . . . This book is a significant contribution to the study of the politics of inequality and to the linkages between microlevel beliefs and opinions and macrolevel phenomena like large-scale social, political, and economic change.- --Karen S. Cook, Contemporary Sociology -The editors and contributors to Social Justice and Political Change have made a significant addition to our knowledge of public opinion in both Western capitalist democracies and among formerly communist states in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Readers will find a virtual treasure trove in this enormously ambitious work that explores questions of social and economic equality over a range of political, social and economic contexts. . . . It deserves to be in the syllabi of both undergraduate and graduate courses in public opinion, political theory, and comparative politics, and is almost certain to be well cited by researchers.- --Euel Elliott, The American Political Science Review -This is a valuable book for those interested in justice perceptions among mass publics in the East and West.- --James L. Gibson, The Public Opinion Quarterly "There have been few ambitious, large-scale international collaborative efforts at data collection in the past decade of the sort that are described in this edited volume by Kluegel, Mason and Wegener. . . . This book is a significant contribution to the study of the politics of inequality and to the linkages between microlevel beliefs and opinions and macrolevel phenomena like large-scale social, political, and economic change." --Karen S. Cook, Contemporary Sociology "The editors and contributors to Social Justice and Political Change have made a significant addition to our knowledge of public opinion in both Western capitalist democracies and among formerly communist states in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Readers will find a virtual treasure trove in this enormously ambitious work that explores questions of social and economic equality over a range of political, social and economic contexts. . . . It deserves to be in the syllabi of both undergraduate and graduate courses in public opin