Public Tolerance for Social Inequalities in Turbulent Russia: Reassessing the Role of Subjective Mobility

Abstract

Based on the data of all-Russian representative studies conducted within the framework of the international ISSP program in 1992–2019, as well as the 2020 study of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the article examines the perception of social inequality by the population, its dynamics, and the role of social mobility as a factor in its differentiation. The authors show that, in terms of the perception of income inequality by the population, the situation resembles the one seen in the 1990s, during a completely different stage of the country's development. The overwhelming majority of Russians today consider income inequality to be unnecessarily high and unfair. Such perceptions and the associated high demand for redistribution do not differ across socio-demographic and socio-economic groups. The experience of social mobility also does not lead to significant differentiation in this respect, and the expected mobility in the medium term is characterized by a weak influence. Only short-term expectations work relatively noticeably in this regard: if they are positive, they reduce the negative perception of income inequality and the demand for redistribution. As for the perception of non-monetary inequalities, normative ideas about their minimization aimed at achieving social justice turn out to be similar in groups with different directions of expected or already completed mobility. Thereby, the perception of both monetary and non-monetary inequalities, as well as requests for their reduction, are formed to a greater extent on the basis of normative ideas about the “proper” structure of society and an assessment of its compliance with the observed reality than on the characteristics of an individual situation, including expected or actual mobility.

Acknowledgements. The study was carried out within a grant provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Grant Agreement No.: 075-15-2020-928).