The article analyses changes in beliefs about distributive justice in the Czech Republic from 1991 to 2009 in an international comparative perspective. Based on previous analyses and published work, the article formulates the hypothesis that the process of crystallisation of the two main ideologies or norms of distributive justice, namely meritocratic and egalitarian ideologies, which was confirmed in analyses carried out from 1991 to 1995, continued in later years. The article draws on the fundamental theories of distributive justice and utilises data from surveys carried out in 1991, 1995, 2006 and 2009, which the authors analyse in terms of measurement and structural models. The models confirm the hypothesis that the crystallisation of norms of distributive justice continued in more recent years, and that at present these norms are internally structured in almost the same way as in advanced democracies. These norms are thus closely tied to the stratification system, which means that meritocracy has solidified its position as the dominant norm of distributive justice, whereas egalitarianism has gradually become a ‘challenging’ norm preferred by individuals in lower-status positions in the stratification system.
This article examines the development of class voting in the Czech Republic, 1992- 2010. While many Western countries have been experiencing declining or stable associations between class and electoral choice, we hypothesize that the trend in class voting should be quite different in the Czech Republic, and by extension, in other post-communist countries. We theorize that if a country is undergoing a process of re-stratification - the process in which class-based cleavages and identities regain significance in a new market economy after a long period of their de-stratification by communist egalitarian policies - such a country should also experience increases in class voting in the new market environment. Using standard loglinear and logistic regression approaches, our analysis confirms that class voting has indeed increased in the Czech Republic, particularly from 1998-2010. That increase is large both in the gross effect of class as well as its effect net of the role of other demographic variables. The Czech Republic is therefore relatively unique among countries examined in the international literature on class voting in having increasing associations across several electoral periods.
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