Robert V. Robinson

Equality, Success, and Social Justice in England and the United States.

In an exploratory study of matched samples in England and the United States, we construct a path model that explains 26% and 39%, respectively, of the variance in social judgments about the fairness or unfairness of equality. The underdog principle, from which we predict that egalitarians compared to inegalitarians are more likely to be nonwhite, to have low prestige occupations, to have low family incomes, and to identify with the lower and working classes, is accepted. The principle of enlightenment, from which we predict a positive relationship between education and favorable attitudes toward equality, is accepted for England but not for the United States. The principle of an egalitarian Zeitgeist, from which we predict younger people are more egalitarian than older people, is accepted for the United States but not for England. Two additional important causal variables are found. First, a sense of personal equity, that is, a belief that a person has the standard of living that helshe deserves, reduces egalitarian attitudes in England more than in the United States and may reflect a cultural belief that British society is extraordinarily just because social arrangements result from fair rules of the game. While it is of no importance in England, the cultural belief in monetary success reduces egalitarian attitudes in the United States and functions as the belief in the just society does in England.

Class as Conceived by Marx and Dahrendorf: Effects on Income Inequality and Politics in the United States and Great Britain

The class theories of Karl Marx and Ralf Dahrendorf, although subject to much theoretical analysis, largely have been ignored in the dominant lines of quantitative research on status attainment and the political consequences of social stratification. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by drawing out some of the implications of Marxs ownership of the means of production and Dahrendorf s authority for both income inequality and politics, by evaluating these implications empirically and by showing how these conceptions of class can be incorporated into the dominant Blau-Duncan model of status attainment. Using survey data from large national samples in the United States and Great Britain, we show that both Marxs and Dahrendorfs class models have important implications for mens income, increasing by almost half the variance explained by the conventional Blau-Duncan model. The income of American women, in contrast, is little influenced by class and this explains a substantial part of the male-female income gap. As Marx, Dahrendorf, and others predicted, class position has a stronger impact on class identification and politics in Great Britain than in the United States. An analysis of the transfer of class position from one generation to the next in Britain suggests the existence of two overlapping but distinct stratification systems, one a class system rooted in ownership of the means of production and authority, and the other a status system based on education and occupational status.

MEN'S AND WOMEN'S CONSCIOUSNESS OF GENDER INEQUALITY: AUSTRIA, WEST GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, AND THE UNITED STATES*

A model explaining consciousness of gender inequality is tested using data for the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and Austria. Well-educated people tend to be less favorable toward efforts to reduce gender inequality than less well-educated people. Women with employed husbands are less supportive of efforts to reduce gender inequality than women without a male wage earner. Women are more likely to perceive gender inequality than men and are more supportive of efforts to combat gender inequality. These findings differ from findings in prior U.S. research. Moreover, U.S. women are unique in several respects, including a positive influence of labor force participation on support for efforts to reduce gender inequality. Ourfindings call into question the generalizability of U.S. studies. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the feminist movement began a resurgence in the United States in the mid-1960s. Within a few years, second-wave feminist movements had sprung up throughout Europe. Although the specific causes underlying these movements differed from country to country, a common factor was a growing awareness of gender inequalities in the workplace and home and a growing belief that these inequalities were sufficiently unjust that they should be eliminated. In studies of U.S. women and men, attitudes toward gender inequality have been associated with employment and family structure (Mason and Bumpass 1975; Cherlin and Walters 1981; Thomton, Alwin, and Camburn 1983; Smith 1985; Plutzer 1988). However, because these studies have not been replicated in other countries, it is unknown whether findings for the U.S. apply to other societies. We propose a model of consciousness of gender inequality based, in part, on hypotheses derived from prior research in the U.S., then test its generalizability using national survey data of women and men in four Westem societies - the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and Austria.

Class Reproduction Among Men and Women in France: Reproduction Theory on Its Home Ground

Through an analysis of a large survey of employment men and women in France, this article shows that French reproduction theory has overstated the role of education in reproducing class advantage from generation to generation. Among men, reproduction of control over labor power (i.e., managerial/supervisory positions) is primarily direct instead of indirect through education. At the same time, education plays no role in reproducing ownership of businesses (i.e., capitalist and petty bourgeois positions), and there is little tendency for capitalist or petty bourgeois fathers to convert their economic capital into the educational capital for their sons so that the sons can secure managerial positions. Education serves less as a reproducer of class advantage than as a vehicle of mobility into managerial positions. Although reproduction theory has tended to ignore gender differences in class reproduction , these are found to be substantial. In the reproduction of ownership, women are less likely than men to inherit a business from their father. In the reproduction of control over labor power, the considerations that are important to mens chances of acquiring managerial/supervisory positions are generally much less important to womens chances. Thus reproduction strategis that are succesful in perpetuating class privilege for men do not work as well for women.

Their brothers' keepers : Orthodox religionists, modernists, and economic justice in Europe

Through analyses of national surveys of 21 European countries and Israel, the authors test the conventional wisdom in Europe that modernists are to the left of the religiously orthodox on economic justice concerns. Modernists are more individualistic than the orthodox in seeing individuals, not a deity, as responsible for their fates and as the ultimate moral arbiters. The authors hypothesize that modernists are also economically individualistic in believing that the poor or jobless, not the community or state, should solve their own problems. The authors find that on economic concerns, modernists are far more likely to be to the right of the orthodox than to the left.

Cognitive Maps of Class and Racial Inequalities in England and the United States

A 1975 exploratory study is used in this investigation of the cognitive maps of class and racial inequalities held by 113 American and 101 English repondents. An Index of Perceived Inequality is constructed from nine items dealing with inequalities, both among classes and between races, of education, occupation, income, respect, and treatment by the police and courts. The index appears reliable and valid, particularly for the United States. For the United States, factor analyses show that perceptions of class inequalities cannot be separated empirically from perceptions of racial inequalities on the basis of their interrelationships. Thus a single dimension can account for the common variation of the nine items. But in England perceptions of class and racial inequalities tend to separate into two distinct, though correlated, clusters. Additionally, for both countries there is support for grouping the items into those dealing with inequality of opportunity and those dealing with inequality of treatment and condition. Finally, compared with the English, Americans perceived more inequality, were more likely to see a growing economic gap between the rich and the poor, saw a larger number of social classes, and were more likely to say that money is the defining criterion of class.

Ideology, Moral Cosmology, and Community in the United States

We propose an ideological/cosmological model to complement the three answers that have been offered to the Community Question: contentions that community is now lost, saved, or liberated. We hypothesize that the U.S. education system inculcates an individualistic ideology that disposes highly educated people to a weaker sense of community. We also hypothesize that the theologically modernist moral cosmology is inherently individualistic relative to the religiously orthodox cosmology and inclines those holding it to feel less of a sense of community. Through analyses of national survey data on peoples feelings of community from their town or city, neighbors, friends, place of worship, co‐workers or fellow students, ethnic group members, and people met on the web, we find strong confirmation for both hypotheses. Education and moral cosmology are each more consistent predictors of peoples sense of community across a range of communities than most of the variables in the conventional answers to the Community Question.

Who Values the Obedient Child Now? The Religious Factor in Adult Values for Children, 1986–2002

Sociologists have documented a convergence of Protestants and Catholics in their valuation of autonomy and obedience as desirable traits for children from 1958 through 1991. By the 1980s, Alwin (1986) found that variation in such values within Protestants and Catholics was greater than that between them. Analyzing the GSS from 1986 to 2002, we test whether Evangelical Protestants, in a backlash against a climate of moral uncertainty and government intervention into matters of morality, have become more likely to value obedience in children over autonomy, while Catholics, reacting to the Second Vatican Council and to collective upward mobility, have become less likely to do so. We find no change among Catholics (and Mainline Protestants), but a shift toward increasing valuation of obedience over autonomy among Evangelicals who attend church frequently.

Overcoming movement obstacles by the religiously orthodox: the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Shas in Israel, Comunione e Liberazione in Italy, and the Salvation Army in the United States.

This article examines four movements of the religiously orthodox that should have failed according to most social movement theory and research. The movements combine (1) an extraordinarily broad agenda, (2) a strict, morally absolutist ideology, and (3) a strong proscription against compromise with other groups, each of which has been identified as a liability that can lead to movement failure. Through inductive, qualitative analyses, the authors identify four shared strategies that helped these movements overcome these obstacles: bypassing the state, building grassroots structures, providing graduated membership, and reprioritizing agendas. Analyses of these movements also suggest that particular combinations of movement “liabilities” may actually be advantageous.

Using a Research Article to Foster Moral Reflection and Global Awareness in Teaching About Religion and Politics, Theory Testing, and Democracy in the Muslim World

Encouraging students to reflect on their ethical principles and to develop a global outlook have been identified as key pedagogical goals in recent national reports on higher education. This article shows how instructors can use a current article from the American Sociological Review (ASR) to facilitate moral reflection and global awareness. The ASR article, with its focus on the political implications of moral cosmologies of Muslims, its cross-national methodology, and its non-western geographical focus, is well suited to these pedagogical goals. We offer active learning exercises designed to promote ethical examination and global understandings in an introductory sociology course, a theory course, and an upper-level course on political sociology, sociology of religion, or globalization.