How Individuals’ Perceptions of Inequality May Affect Their Perceptions of Corruption: A Challenge to New Democracies

Abstract

Using original mass public surveys in nine East European, European Union (EU) member countries (2007), I develop a micro-level approach linking individuals’ perceptions of inequality and corruption. Merging an instrumental variables approach with an emerging body of comparative scholarship, I demonstrate that individuals’ perceptions of inequality can be seen to contribute to their perceptions of corruption based on individuals’ normative concerns of the failure of democratic institutions to address issues related to inequality. Thus, for these countries, this region, the EU, as well as other new democracies, we can better understand these potential threats to the development of stable, sustainable democracy.

Citation

Loveless, M. (2016), "How Individuals’ Perceptions of Inequality May Affect Their Perceptions of Corruption: A Challenge to New Democracies", Inequality after the 20th Century: Papers from the Sixth ECINEQ Meeting (Research on Economic Inequality, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 247-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1049-258520160000024011