Social mobility and demand for redistribution in Europe: a comparative analysis

The literature on preferences for redistribution has paid little attention to the effect of social mobility on the demand for redistribution and no systematic test of the hypotheses connecting social mobility and preferences for redistribution has yet been done to date. We use the diagonal reference model to estimate the effect of origin and destination classes on preferences for redistribution in a large sample of European countries using data from the European Social Survey. Our findings are consistent with the logic of acculturation in the sense that newcomers tend to adapt their views to those of the destination class at early stages and that upward and downward mobility do not have distinctive effects on the formation of political preferences. However, even though social origins seem to have a limited impact on preferences for redistribution, the evidence does not support the hypothesis that mobile and non‐mobile individuals are alike. We also find that the effect of social origin on preferences varies largely across countries. The empirical evidence leads to the conclusion that the effect of social origin on preferences for redistribution increases in contexts of strong familism.     

Socioeconomic status and the dynamics of preferences for income inequality in the United States, 1978–2016

Although considerable evidence indicates that public preferences for income inequality and redistribution vary across socioeconomic groups (i.e., occupation and income), much less is known about the temporal dynamics of these preferences. The purpose of this study is (a) to examine whether the attitudinal distance between managerial/professional workers and unskilled manual workers has changed (converged or diverged) over time and to (b) explore the reasons for and implications of the dynamics of preferences in the past several decades. Using data from the General Social Survey 1978–2016 (23 time‐points; N = 27,211), this study finds that the influence of occupational class has lost some of its significance in shaping public preferences for income inequality and that the declining effect of occupation can be explained in part by the attitudinal convergence between better‐ and less‐educated citizens. Findings suggest that proequality coalitions across educational boundaries play a remedial role in bridging the occupational divide over government redistribution in the United States.     

Orientating disability studies to disablist austerity: applying Fraser’s insights

Many disabled people in Britain have experienced profound challenges brought about by a government policy programme characterised by ‘austerity’. Drawing on the work of Fraser and Polanyi, this article explores new ways in which disability studies can become theoretically orientated to the task of explaining and challenging what has become an issue of overbearing importance for many disabled people. It is argued that Fraser’s notion of bivalency encapsulates the combination of cultural and economic challenges which characterise ‘disablist austerity’. Fraser’s development of Polanyi’s work is used to argue that disability studies should be orientated to large-scale economic challenges as well as cultural and discursive concerns that are more often the object of study in the field.     

Women's entrepreneurship,neoliberalism and economic justice in the postfeminist era: A discourse analysis of policy change in Sweden

Since the early 1990s, there has been investment in women's entrepreneurship policy (WEP) in Sweden, which continued until 2015. During the same period, Sweden assumed neoliberal policies that profoundly changed the position of women within the world of work and business. The goals for WEP changed as a result, from entrepreneurship as a way to create a more equal society, to the goal of unleashing women's entrepreneurial potential so they can contribute to economic growth. To better understand this shift we approach WEP as a neoliberal governmentality which offers women ‘entrepreneurial’ or ‘postfeminist’ subject positions. The analysis is inspired by political theorist Nancy Fraser who theorized the change as the displacement of socioeconomic redistribution in favour of cultural recognition, or identity politics. We use Fraser's concepts in a discourse analysis of Swedish WEP over two decades, identifying two distinct discourses and three discursive displacements. Whilst WEP initially gave precedence to a radical feminist discourse that called for women's collective action, this was replaced by a postfeminist neoliberal discourse that encouraged individual women to assume an entrepreneurial persona, start their own business, compete in the marketplace and contribute to economic growth. The result was the continued subordination of women business owners, but it also obscured or rendered structural problems/solutions, and collective feminist action, irrelevant.     

影响我国居民收入分配差距因素的实证分析

世界银行2005年发展报告显示,中国的基尼系数按由低到高排名第85位,2007年达到了0.48,超过了国际上0.4的警戒线。本文对中国1994—2007年的相关统计资料进行实证分析,以验证税收、转移支付和教育与收入分配差距之间遵从的演变路径,探讨了城乡转移支付对收入分配差距的影响力度,得出结论:教育和税收能缩小收入分配差距,但影响有限;现行的社会保障制度并没有实现制度上的公平,农村社保制度对收入差距的负面影响远大于城市社保制度。     

养老保险统筹层次收入再分配理论研究

基础养老保险全国统筹层次的实施,具有养老保险给付收入再分配性质和功能。文章提出养老保险统筹层次收入再分配理论架构,包括养老保险统筹层次收入再分配功能;养老保险统筹层次收入再分配生存公平和劳动公平;养老保险统筹层次收入差距与收入再分配系数联动;养老保险统筹给付适度水平检验,等等。这四个相互关联的理论要素,构成了养老保险统筹层次收入再分配理论框架。养老保险统筹层次的收入再分配理论,是养老保险统筹层次选择、养老保险统筹模式设计的基本理论依据,也是政府部门制定养老保险统筹方案的重要逻辑线路和政策依据。     

一般信任模式的跨部门差异及其中介机制: 基于2010年中国综合社会调查的研究

本文基于“市场”与“国家再分配”两种不同制度环境的讨论，利用中国综合社会调查2010年的数据，运用倾向值匹配方法处理潜在的选择性误差，考察了不同部门中个体的一般信任水平。结果显示，相比私有部门（外资企业和私营企业），在公共部门中工作的个体呈现了更高的一般信任水平。进一步的分析表明，政治参与水平和相对剥夺感作为中介于工作部门与一般信任水平之间的解释机制是显著的，在公共部门中工作的个体不仅在态度上对内在政治效能感有更高的认定，而且也能积极参与居委会社区的选举。这些特征极大提升了他们的一般信任水平。此外，公共部门中的个体在社会地位与经济地位上所持有的较低的相对剥夺感也有助于其建立更高的一般信任水平。     

Gendering Global Governance

In this article I map out the major debates on global governance and the feminist critiques of the mainstream interventions in these debates. I argue that the shift from government to governance is a response to the needs of a gendered global capitalist economy and is shaped by struggles, both discursive and material, against the unfolding consequences of globalization. I suggest feminist interrogations of the concept, processes, practices and mechanisms of governance and the insights that develop from them should be centrally incorporated into critical revisionist and radical discourses of and against the concept of global governance. However, I also examine the challenges that the concept of global governance poses for feminist political practice, which are both of scholarship and of activism as feminists struggle to address the possibilities and politics of alternatives to the current regimes of governance. I conclude by suggesting that feminist political practice needs to focus on the politics of redistribution in the context of global governance.     

Inégalités et mondialisation financière: le rapport qui tombe à pic

Cette note présente la nouvelle publication annuelle de l'Institut international d'études sociales de l'OIT, le Rapport mondial sur le travail 2008, dont le thème est les inégalités de revenu à l'épreuve de la mondialisation financière. Cette publication tombe à point nommé au moment où l'on s'inquiète de l'ampleur, de la durée et des conséquences économiques et sociales de la crise financière. Le rapport traite des déterminants de l'accroissement des inégalités de revenu, et de ses liens avec la mon‐dialisation financière, les institutions du marché du travail, les emplois – création et caractéristiques –, et les politiques de redistribution.     

征地拆迁对农村阶层分化的影响——基于湖北省荆门市城郊农村的调查

在城郊农村阶层分化背景下,征地拆迁本质上是对土地增值收益在农村各阶层间的再分配过程,它涉及到阶层间的博弈关系,必然对农村各阶层的状况、阶层流动和阶层关系产生影响,重构农村阶层结构。征地拆迁对农村各阶层的影响因各阶层的权力、土地和社会关系差异而不同,在征地拆迁过程中有的阶层实现了向上流动,而有的阶层则在经济、声望和职业地位等方面都下降了。征地拆迁中的阶层博弈既促成了精英阶层内部的利益联盟,也产生或加剧了其他阶层与农村体制精英的对立关系,农村阶层关系愈发紧张。