Juan Carlos Castillo

Income inequality, distributive fairness and political trust in Latin America

In the wake of rising levels of income inequality during the past two decades, widespread concerns emerged about the social and political consequences of the widening gap between the poor and the rich that can be observed in many established democracies. Several empirical studies substantiate the link between macro-level income inequality and political attitudes and behavior, pointing at its broad and negative implications for political equality. Accordingly, these implications are expected to be accentuated in contexts of high inequality, as is the case in Latin America. Despite these general concerns about the consequences of income inequality, few studies have accounted for the importance of individual perceptions of distributive fairness in regard to trust in political institutions. Even less is known about the extent to which distributive fairness perceptions co-vary with objective indicators of inequality. Moreover, the research in this area has traditionally focused on OECD countries, which have lower indexes of inequality than the rest of the world. This study aims at filling this gap by focusing on the relevance of distributive fairness perceptions and macro-level inequality for political trust and on how these two levels interact in Latin American countries. The analyses are based on the Latinobarometer survey 2011, which consists of 18 countries. Multilevel estimations suggest that both dimensions of inequality are negatively associated with political trust but that higher levels of macro-level inequality attenuate rather than increase the strength of the negative association between distributive fairness perceptions and political trust.

Poverty Attributions and the Perceived Justice of Income Inequality A Comparison of East and West Germany

Though the concept of social justice is widely used in the social sciences, we know little about the amount of income inequality that is perceived as just and why perceptions vary across social contexts. In this paper, we argue the ways people define the causes of poverty are related to how they perceive and justify existing income inequality. We examine internal and external attributions of poverty using survey data from the 2006 International Social Justice Project (ISJP). We compare two culturally and structurally distinct regions—East and West Germany. The results support our hypothesis that the amount of income inequality people perceive as just is related to how they explain the causes of poverty, that is, internal and/or external attributions. Poverty attributions are crucial mediators and explain contextual differences in the perceived justice of income inequality between East and West Germany.

Percepción de Desigualdad Económica en Chile: Medición, Diferencias y Determinantes

Si bien hasta ahora se han utilizado diferentes indicadores de desigualdad economica percibida en investigaciones basadas en encuestas, no existen estudios especificos que comparen estos indicadores. Usando datos de la encuesta representativa nacional ISSP 2009 (N = 1.505), la investigacion comparo 3 medidas de percepcion de desigualdad en Chile y analizo la influencia de predictores de estatus, posicion politica y evaluacion de justicia salarial en las variables perceptuales, mediante metodos de correlacion y regresion. De acuerdo a los resultados, los indicadores perceptuales se encuentran debilmente asociados entre si y, por lo tanto, estarian dando cuenta de distintos aspectos de la percepcion de desigualdad. Ademas, el estatus socioeconomico demostro influir directamente en la desigualdad percibida, mientras aquellos que evaluan su salario como justo tenderian a percibir menos desigualdad. Finalmente se discuten las consecuencias y proyecciones de esta investigacion. Palabras clave: desigualdad economica, indicadores, percepcion, encuestas Even though a series of perceived inequality indicators have been used in survey research, to date there is no research comparing these indicators. Using data from the 2009 Chilean ISSP national representative survey (N = 1,505), this research compared 3 measures of inequality perception and analyzed the influence of status, political position and evaluation of wage justice on perceptual variables, through correlation and regression methods. Results showed that the perceptual indicators are weakly associated with each other and, therefore, they can be regarded as covering different aspects of inequality perception. Furthermore, socioeconomic status had a direct influence on inequality perception, whereas those that evaluate their salary as fair tend to perceive less inequality. The consequences and projections of the study are addressed in the final discussion.

Social Inequality and Changes in Students' Expected Political Participation in Chile.

To what extent does social origin impact the disposition of students toward becoming politically involved in their future adult life? Using Chilean data from Civic Education Study, 1999 (N = 5688), and International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, 2009 (N = 5192), the present research analyzes, on the one hand, the impact of socioeconomic variables on attitudes toward future political participation and, on the other hand, explores to what extent the association between social origin and participation has changed over time. The analysis is performed in a multilevel framework, to account for both family socioeconomic status and individual school characteristics. The results support the hypothesis that social origin continues to have a strong influence on students’ attitudes toward political participation, in the context of the two measurement points. The resulting discussion focuses on the role of schools in reducing socioeconomic differences, an issue that acquires additional relevance in societies with high inequality such as Chile.

Young Citizens Participation: Empirical Testing of a Conceptual Model:

A growing body of literature from different disciplines addresses concepts and measurement of citizenship. The present article seeks to contribute to this field by examining the issue of youth citizenship from a comparative international perspective and proposing a simplified conceptual model that can be operationalized. This model includes a community dimension, which refers to individual’s relationship with their community associations, and a civic dimension, concerning institutional processes such as voting and/or political activism. The model was tested using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and measurement equivalence for eighth-grade students (n = 139.875) across 38 countries that participated in the International Civic and Citizenship Study (2009). Our results find support for the proposed conceptual model and its invariance across countries, and we discuss the implications for theory and further research.

Clivajes partidarios y cambios en preferencias distributivas en Chile

Resumen es: Las creencias respecto de como deberian distribuirse los bienes y recursos en la sociedad constituyen un elemento central de la identificacion con partid...

About the empirical study of solidarity: conceptual and methodological approaches

Solidarity, understood as a social and communicative operation destined to maintain people’s cohesion in the context of modern society, evidences the permanence of a stratified social order that produces exclusion from certain social rights. This article attempts to further discuss this definition by offering an empirical and multidimensional analysis of solidarity conducts in Chile. Through an univariate analysis and MANOVA analysis of data from the “Survey of solidarity 2010” (N = 1389) generated by the measurement center MIDE UC of the Pontifical Catholic University, we conclude that there are certain variables of social stratification that currently predict and address the solidarity ́s orientations in Chile. This suggests that the need for solidarity not only responds to a stratified outlining of modern society, but also that different axes of stratification influence the social dimensions of solidarity.La solidaridad, entendida como una operacion social y comunicativa destinada a mantener la cohesion de las personas en el marco de la sociedad moderna, pone en evidencia la permanencia de un orden social estratificado que produce exclusion de ciertos derechos sociales. El presente articulo, intenta discutir mas a fondo esta definicion ofreciendo un analisis empirico y multidimensional de las conductas solidarias en Chile. Mediante analisis bivariados y de MANOVA de los datos de la “Encuesta de solidaridad 2010” (N=1389) generada por el centro de medicion MIDE UC de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica, llegamos a la conclusion que existen ciertas variables del esquema de estratificacion social que en la actualidad predicen y direccionan la orientacion de la solidaridad en Chile. Esto sugiere que la solidaridad no solamente responde a una esquematizacion estratificada de la sociedad moderna, sino ademas agrega que diferentes ejes de estratificacion social influencian las dimensiones de la solidaridad

Income, egalitarianism and attitudes towards healthcare policy: a study on public attitudes in 29 countries

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the relationship between income and egalitarian values and attitudes towards healthcare policy. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional and cross-national study. METHODS Data for 29 countries from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 2011 were used. The dependent variables are a general attitude towards government involvement in healthcare provision and two attitudes regarding specific policies (taxes and public funding). Income and egalitarianism were also measured by using ISSP. Data were analysed using regression models that account for individual and country-level characteristics, and country-fixed effects. RESULTS The effect of income is small and non-significant for attitudes towards government involvement and public funding. For willingness to pay (WTP) taxes to improve healthcare services, we find a positive association with income. Results for egalitarianism suggest a positive association with government involvement in healthcare provision and significant interactions with WTP taxes. CONCLUSIONS The distinction of dimensions and mechanisms underlying policy attitudes appears as relevant. Citizens across socioeconomic groups are motivated to support state-funded healthcare, favouring the design of non-selfish policies. These findings suggest that there is space for policymakers who seek to increase healthcare spending encouraging either policies for specific groups or broader institutional changes.

The Political Socialization of Attitudes Toward Equal Rights from a Comparative Perspective

Lack of tolerance toward traditionally disadvantaged groups, such as immigrants, ethnic minorities and women, represents a growing challenge to contemporary democracies. Assuming that attitudes toward such social groups are at least partly learned during the political socialization of school-age children, this chapter explores individual differences in equal rights attitudes using data from the last International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009 on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of eighth grade students from 38 countries. Using structural equations and multilevel models, the analysis estimates regression models using a set of measures, with family status being the main independent variable. The results show that there are large differences across countries regarding the level of inclusive attitudes, and that parental education and the number of books at home are relevant predictors of more inclusive attitudes of children in most of the countries analyzed; however, patterns differ by gender and immigrant groups. The findings are discussed, taking into account current and future political issues associated with migration and demands for equal rights.

Measurement Model and Invariance Testing of Scales Measuring Egalitarian Values in ICCS 2009

Based on the conceptualization of democratic principles in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009, particularly attitudes concerning equal rights for disadvantaged groups, such as immigrants, ethnic groups and women, this chapter evaluates the extent to which the scales measuring attitudes toward gender equality, equal rights for all ethnic/racial groups and equal rights for immigrants are invariant, and to what extent they can be compared across the countries participating in the study. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis is used to estimate a measurement model of the egalitarian attitudes and its measurement equivalence across the 38 countries (n = 140,000 8th grade students) that participated in ICCS 2009. The results indicate that the original scales are non-invariant. Nevertheless, with some modifications, the proposed conceptual model was found to be invariant across countries. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and empirical implications of the model.