Egalitarianism and public perception of social inequities: A case study of Beijing congestion charge
Egalitarianism and public perception of social inequities: A case study of Beijing congestion charge
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.11.012
复制
发表时间：
2019-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
6.8
通讯作者：
Liu, Yang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Liu, Qiyang;Lucas, Karen;Liu, Yang
平等主义思想在中国历史上有着悠久的传统。它与社会主义意识形态相结合，在共产主义中国的最初几十年在全国范围内推行。随着近期经济自由化改革带来的生活质量的明显改善，中国人正经历着日益严重的贫富分化。因此，一种平等主义倾向在当代政策和流行话语中显现出来。本文旨在以公众对目前仍处于筹划阶段的北京拥堵费的态度为例，探讨平等主义思想如何影响公众对社会不平等的认识。与居住在该市不同地区的居民一起开展了 9 个焦点小组，共有 73 名参与者。结果表明，低收入和高收入人群对社会不平等的看法存在显着差异。由于平等主义思想，低收入人群期望富人的特权被废除，但他们并不太关注财富和其他社会资源的更广泛的重新分配。相比之下，较富裕的人往往会拒绝让更多人享有他们自己所享有的特权，并且在某种程度上，他们不愿意接受可能有利于社会地位较低的人的政策结果。作为平等主义的另一个副产品，对富人的怨恨极大地夸大了实际的社会不平等，从而加剧了不平等待遇的感觉。
Egalitarian thought has a long tradition in Chinese history. Synthesized with the socialist ideology, it was practiced nationwide in the first decades of Communist China. Alongside the well-reported quality of life improvements that the recent economic liberalisation reforms have brought about, Chinese people are experiencing an increasingly serious polarization between the rich and the poor. Consequently, an egalitarian tendency has represented itself within contemporary policy and popular discourse.This paper aims to explore how egalitarian thought has influenced public awareness of social inequities by using the case of public attitudes towards the Beijing congestion charge, which is currently still at its planning stage. Nine focus groups, with a total of 73 participants, were undertaken with residents living in different areas of the city. Results show that the perceptions of social inequities are significantly different between low-income and high-income people. Due to egalitarian thinking, low-income people expect the privileges of the rich to be abolished, however, they do not pay much attention to a wider redistribution of wealth and other social resources. By contrast, richer people tend to deny to a wider population the privileges they themselves received, and, to some extent, they are reluctant to accept policy outcomes that may favour those who are in lower social positions. The resentment against the rich, as another by-product of egalitarianism, considerably exaggerates actual social inequalities, thereby intensifying the feelings of being unequally treated.