Doctoral Dissertation Research: Norms of Social Justice and Welfare State Attitudes in Post-Soviet Central Asia

博士论文研究：后苏联中亚社会正义和福利国家态度的规范

• 批准号: 0703222
• 负责人: Arthur Alderson
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-01 至 2008-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0703222&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Norms; Social

Arthur S. AldersonAzamat K. JunisbaiIndiana UniversityA wealth of public opinion studies conducted in Western democracies tell a great deal about ordinary citizens' expectations of their governments' social spending programs, as well as about how ordinary citizens explain why socio-economic inequality exists and what to do about it. It is possible to predict, for example, which individuals are more likely to favor greater spending on social programs or which are likely to view inequality as a necessary evil. It is also possible to predict differences between countries regarding popular expectations about how and to what degree the government should redistribute wealth and about the government's responsibility in ensuring the welfare of its citizens.At the same time, however, much less is known about these same issues in countries located outside of the predominantly Christian democratic West. To fill this gap, in this Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Research the co-PI will organize nationally representative surveys of popular attitudes toward the welfare state and distributive justice in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, two post-Soviet Central Asian countries that differ starkly from the usual venues of most studies to date. The fact that these countries are poorer, less democratic, and predominantly Muslim makes them qualitatively different from other settings in which such studies have taken place. Because so many people in the world still live under non-democratic rule, this study has the potential to make an important contribution. Paradoxically, over the long run, regimes whose survival is less reliant on fair elections and democratic politics might be more dependent on welfare programs and benefits for retaining their legitimacy and, ultimately, power. In addition to its academic relevance, a nuanced understanding of popular expectations about distributive justice is vital for future political and economic development in Central Asia and should be of strong interest to policy-makers both inside and outside the region. The effects of market transition have been particularly acute in Central Asia, traditionally the poorest and most heavily subsidized part of the former Soviet Union. Confounded by the absence of viable democratic institutions, the disintegration of the Soviet-era social safety net and the resulting widespread impoverishment have been so grave as to make some observers of the region wary of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in these recently secular societies. The urgency of these issues was illustrated by the recent uprising of the poor in Kyrgyzstan, which led to the fall of the ruling government and former President Akaev's sudden resignation.The surveys will produce a unique, internationally comparative dataset. In designing the questionnaire, translated and pre-tested questions originally employed as part of the International Social Justice Project (ISJP) in Russia in 1996 were combined with questions from the Social Inequality module of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and the World Values Survey (WVS), both administered in Russia in 1999. The use of well-established questions enables theoretically intriguing comparisons of data collected in Central Asia to existing datasets originating elsewhere and helps ensure reliable and valid measurement.

阿瑟·S·阿尔德森·阿扎马特·K·朱尼斯印第安纳大学在西方民主国家进行的大量民意研究揭示了普通公民对政府社会支出计划的期望，以及普通公民如何解释社会经济不平等的存在以及如何应对。例如，可以预测哪些人更倾向于在社会项目上增加支出，或者哪些人可能将不平等视为一种必要的邪恶。在民众对政府应该如何以及在多大程度上重新分配财富，以及政府在确保公民福利方面的责任方面，国家之间的差异也是可能的。然而，与此同时，在基督教占主导地位的民主西方以外的国家，对这些相同问题的了解要少得多。为了填补这一空白，在这篇博士论文《改进研究》中，该合作者将在哈萨克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦这两个后苏联中亚国家组织具有全国代表性的民众对福利国家和分配正义的态度调查，这两个国家与迄今为止大多数研究的通常地点截然不同。这些国家更贫穷、民主程度更低、以穆斯林为主，这一事实使它们在性质上有别于进行此类研究的其他环境。由于世界上仍有如此多的人生活在非民主统治下，这项研究有可能做出重要贡献。矛盾的是，从长远来看，那些不那么依赖公平选举和民主政治生存的政权，可能会更多地依赖福利计划和福利来保持其合法性，并最终保持权力。除学术意义外，细致入微地了解民众对分配正义的期望对于中亚未来的政治和经济发展至关重要，并应引起该区域内外决策者的强烈兴趣。市场转型的影响在中亚尤为严重，中亚传统上是前苏联最贫穷、补贴最多的地区。由于缺乏可行的民主机构，苏联时代社会安全网的瓦解和随之而来的普遍贫困如此严重，以至于该地区的一些观察家对伊斯兰原教旨主义在这些最近世俗的社会中的崛起保持警惕。吉尔吉斯斯坦最近的穷人起义导致执政政府倒台和前总统阿卡耶夫突然辞职，这说明了这些问题的紧迫性。调查将产生一个独特的、国际比较的数据集。在设计调查问卷时，将1996年在俄罗斯作为国际社会正义项目(ISJP)一部分使用的翻译和预先测试的问题与1999年在俄罗斯管理的国际社会调查方案(ISSP)和世界价值观调查(WVS)的社会不平等模块的问题结合在一起。通过使用成熟的问题，可以在理论上将中亚收集的数据与源自其他地方的现有数据集进行耐人寻味的比较，并有助于确保可靠和有效的测量。