Income inequality, distributive fairness and political trust in Latin America
Introduction
Income inequality and its far-reaching political, economic and social implications have increasingly been gaining importance on national and international political agendas alike (McCall and Percheski, 2010, OECD, 2008, OECD, 2012). While the causes of income inequality can be manifold as they mainly revolve around increasing gaps in market and capital income, weakening redistributive effectiveness of taxation policies and in-kind benefits, changing household structures or less effective employment protection legislation and processes of globalization, there is widespread agreement on income inequality’s disturbing challenges to social cohesion and political stability (Nolan et al., 2013, Piketty, 2014, Stiglitz, 2012). Apart from its effects on social mobility, life expectancy or happiness (Delhey and Kohler, 2011, Wilkinson and Pickett, 2010), high levels of income inequality impact a broad range of values, attitudes and behavior that are related to social distrust, less solidarity, corruption, bad governance, or weakening political support (Anderson and Singer, 2008, Coburn, 2000, Cozzolino, 2011, Gustavsson and Jordahl, 2008, Hartner-Tiefenthaler et al., 2012, Horn, 2011, Karakoc, 2013, Lim and Sander, 2013, Newton and Zmerli, 2011, Oh, 2012, Park and Subramanian, 2012, Paskov and Dewilde, 2012, Pryor, 2012, Rothstein, 2011, Tyler et al., 1985, Uslaner, 2008, Uslaner, 2011). As an impediment to political equality, economic inequality may also weaken the very foundation of democratic societies (Oh, 2012).
Among the myriad of indicators presumably affected by economic inequality, political trust has recently attracted particular attention given its pivotal role in the stability and legitimacy of democratic regimes (Anderson and Singer, 2008, Newton and Zmerli, 2011, Uslaner, 2011). Generally, legitimacy for democratic systems and their leaders emanates from effective rule of law, separation of powers, and the pursuit of the common good, as well as from trustworthy, transparent, fair, accountable and responsive institutions and actors. Under these conditions, citizens are particularly willing to respect the law, adhere to norms of good citizenship, and become more interested in politics, more co-operative and more involved in civic affairs (Putnam, 1993). As a consequence and to the extent that political institutions and actors are indeed held accountable by the public for a fair distribution of resources in society, political trust may also be highly susceptible to large or increasing income gaps. Despite the alleged universality of its far-reaching implications, a broad range of recent comparative empirical research has either focused on advanced industrial societies where levels of inequality are rather modest or on transitional countries such as Central and Eastern European states that have been exposed to remarkably increasing levels of economic inequality over the past two decades (Lancee and van de Werfhorst, 2011, Lancee and van de Werfhorst, 2012, Solt, 2008, Uslaner, 2011, van de Werfhorst et al., 2012). While empirical evidence suggests consistent negative consequences of rapidly increasing levels of income inequality in countries of transition, comparative analyses of advanced industrial societies provide rather inconclusive results.
By contrast, individual perceptions and negative evaluations of income inequality, which have been shifting lately to the forefront of scientific trust research, appear to exert a strong and direct impact on political support and legitimacy irrespective of an individual’s socioeconomic background (Jost and Major, 2001, Kluegel et al., 1995, Kluegel and Smith, 1986, Kumlin, 2004, Loveless and Whitefield, 2011, Tyler, 1997, Tyler, 2006). Although it is increasingly becoming evident that individual perceptions of inequality fail to accurately reflect trends of income inequality at the country level (Aalberg, 2003, Malahy et al., 2009), tensions and conflicts within societies arise when inequalities are perceived as illegitimate, unfair or unjust (Noll and Roberts, 2003). Accordingly, the corroding influence of income inequality on democratic legitimacy unfolds itself through multiple layers.
To advance this evolving strand of research, the present study focuses on Latin America, the region with the enduringly highest inequality indicators worldwide and where the impact of inequality on political trust acquires an additional relevance given the antecedents of authoritarian and military regimes during the last century. Its objectives are thus twofold: on the one hand, to analyze the extent to which macro-level inequality is associated with political trust in Latin America, and on the other, to study whether and how socio-psychological processes related to individual perceptions of distributive fairness play a role in the association between income inequality and political trust. To this end, we pursue the following research questions: To what extent is macro-level income inequality associated with political trust in Latin American societies? Which roles do individual perceptions of distributive fairness play in analyzing trust in political institutions? Does the strength of the association between the perception of distributive fairness and political trust vary according to the countries’ levels of income inequality? Finally, to what extent does individual social status moderate the association between distributive fairness perceptions and political trust?
This study draws on the Latinobarometer survey data from 2011 encompassing 18 Latin American countries and macro-level indicators of income inequality, quality of democracy and economic well-being. Embedded in a multilevel research design, the study investigates the complex interrelationships between objectively measurable income inequality and subjective perceptions of a fair societal income distribution and political trust.
In the subsequent sections, we will first lay out the conceptual framework of political trust and its empirical antecedents with a particular focus on the relevance of objectively measurable levels of income inequality and individual distributive fairness perceptions. We then describe the institutional causes of more recent trends of income inequality in Latin America and subsequently derive and discuss our hypotheses. The following empirical section investigates the macro–micro linkage between the two dimensions of income inequality and their influence on political trust. Concomitantly, we will also test whether the associations between inequality and political trust still hold when measures of democratic and economic performance as well as individual social status are taken into account. The concluding section offers a brief summary of the main empirical insights and discusses major implications.
Section snippets
Conceptual framework and empirical foundations of political trust
The notion of political trust and its legitimizing and stabilizing function are closely related to David Easton’s concept of political and system support (1965). Considering nation-states as political systems, system support is defined as individual orientations toward the nation-state, its institutions and actors upon which its legitimacy ultimately rests. More generally, Easton distinguishes between three distinct layers of the political system: the nation, the state, and incumbent
Data
The hypotheses were addressed using the Latinobarometer database. Latinobarometer is a public opinion project that from 1995 onwards has collected data in most Latin American countries and Spain, with samples of approximately 1200 cases per country. Each year, the study collects approximately 19000 face-to-face interviews of the adult population, representing more than 400 million Latin American inhabitants (www.latinobarometro.org). Parts of the survey’s questions are replicated each year, and
Descriptive and correlational evidence
The analysis in this section begins with some descriptive measures followed by the results of the multilevel estimation. At first, we inspect our indicator of political trust in Latin American societies.
As observed in Fig. 2, there is variability between countries regarding the mean levels of political trust, with Venezuela and Uruguay as the countries with the highest trust in institutions, whereas Guatemala, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Honduras display the lowest trust levels. Each of
Conclusion
In light of increasing empirical evidence about the wide-ranging political, societal and individual implications of income inequality and Latin America as the region with the highest levels of inequality worldwide, this study aimed at unraveling whether macro-level inequality or subjective perceptions of distributive fairness matter more for political support and whether the association between perceptions of fairness and political trust is conditioned by the extent of country-specific
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) [grant number 11121203], and the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies [grant number CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009].
References (95)
Income inequality, social cohesion and the health status of populations: the role of neo-liberalism
Soc. Sci. Med.
(2000)- et al.
Is happiness inequality immune to income inequality? New evidence through instrument-effect-corrected standard deviations
Soc. Sci. Res.
(2011) - et al.
Does inequality erode social trust? Results from multilevel models of US states and counties
Soc. Sci. Res.
(2013) - et al.
Income inequality and limitations in activities of daily living: a multilevel analysis of the 2003 American Community Survey
Public Health
(2008) - et al.
Inequality and trust in Sweden: some inequalities are more harmful than others
J. Public Econ.
(2008) - et al.
Income inequality and participation. A comparison of 24 European countries
Soc. Sci. Res.
(2012) - et al.
Does misery love company? Civic engagement in economic hard times
Soc. Sci. Res.
(2013) - et al.
Income inequality, perceived happiness, and self- rated health: evidence from nationwide surveys in Japan
Soc. Sci. Med.
(2010) - et al.
Income inequality and solidarity in Europe
Res. Soc. Stratification Mobility
(2012) The impact of income inequality on values and attitudes
J. Socio-Econ.
(2012)
Income inequality, development and electoral turnout. New evidence on a burgeoning debate
Elect. Stud.
Achieving Justice: Comparative Public Opinions on Income Distribution
The sensitive left and the impervious right. Multilevel models and the politics of inequality, ideology, and legitimacy in Europe
Comp. Polit. Stud.
Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age
The income distribution threat in Latin America
Latin Am. Res. Rev.
On the determinants of honesty perceptions in the United States
Ration. Soc.
Trust, cooperation, and equality: a psychological analysis of the formation of social capital
Br. J. Soc. Psychol.
Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Breaking with History?
A new data set measuring income inequality
World Bank Econ. Rev.
A Systems Analysis of Political Life
Centering predictor variables in cross-section multilevel models: a new look at an old issue
Psychol. Methods
Macro-inequalities and micro-justice
Correspondence between the objective and subjective economies: the role of personal economic circumstances
Polit. Stud.
Perceived distributive fairness of European transfer payments and EU-taxed in Austria, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom
Appl. Psychol.
Distributive justice and occupational incomes: perceptions of justice determine perceptions of facts
Br. J. Sociol.
Where you stand depends on what you see: connections among values, perceptions of facts, and political prescriptions
International statistical comparison of occupational and social structures
The lopsided continent: inequality in Latin America
Annu. Rev. Sociol.
Handbook of Advanced Multilevel Analysis
The Psychology of Legitimacy
Attitudes toward eliminating income inequality in Europe
Eur. Union Polit.
Economic inequality and its asymmetric effect on civic engagement: evidence from post-communist countries
Eur. Polit. Sci. Rev.
Do social-welfare policies reduce poverty? A cross-national assessment
Soc. Forces
Beliefs about Inequality: Americans’ Views of What is and What Ought to be
Social Justice and Political Change: Public Opinion in Capitalist and Post-communist States
Class, values, and attitudes towards redistribution: a European comparison
Eur. Sociol. Rev.
The Personal and the Political: How Personal Welfare State Experiences Affect Political Trust and Ideology
Structural adjustment and the globalization of social policy in Latin America
Int. Sociol.
Being unequal and seeing inequality: explaining the political significance of social inequality in New Market democracies
Eur. J. Polit. Res.
Justifying inequality: a cross-temporal investigation of U.S. income disparities and just-world beliefs from 1973 to 2006
Soc. Just. Res.
Does political trust matter? An empirical investigation into the relation between political trust and support for law compliance
Eur. J. Polit. Res.
Cited by (88)
Adolescents thinking on economic inequality: Expanding the discussion beyond the Global North
2023, New Ideas in PsychologyGovernance and monetary policy impacts on public acceptance of CBDC adoption
2023, Research in International Business and FinanceExplaining the ‘democratic malaise’ in unequal societies: Inequality, external efficacy and political trust
2024, European Journal of Political ResearchDoes perceived inequality promote abstention and protest voting? A study of the 2022 Italian general election
2024, Contemporary Italian PoliticsThe role of institutions and social inclusion in trust building
2024, Quality and Quantity