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

在西方民主国家进行的大量民意调查表明，普通公民对政府的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存在的原因以及如何解决这一问题。例如，有可能预测哪些人更倾向于在社会项目上增加支出，哪些人更倾向于将不平等视为一种必要的罪恶。人们对政府应该如何以及在多大程度上重新分配财富的期望，以及政府在确保公民福利方面的责任，也有可能预测不同国家之间的差异。然而，与此同时，在以基督教民主为主的西方以外的国家，人们对这些问题的了解要少得多。为了填补这一空白，在这项博士论文改进研究中，联合pi将在哈萨克斯坦和吉尔吉斯斯坦组织具有全国代表性的民意调查，调查民众对福利国家和分配正义的态度，这两个后苏联中亚国家与迄今为止大多数研究的通常地点截然不同。这些国家较贫穷，民主程度较低，且以穆斯林为主，这一事实使它们与进行此类研究的其他国家在性质上有所不同。由于世界上仍有许多人生活在非民主统治之下，这项研究有可能做出重要贡献。矛盾的是，从长远来看，那些不太依赖公平选举和民主政治的政权，可能会更多地依赖福利计划和福利来维持其合法性，并最终维持权力。除了学术上的相关性外，细致入微地理解大众对分配正义的期望对中亚未来的政治和经济发展至关重要，也应该引起该地区内外决策者的强烈兴趣。市场转型的影响在中亚特别严重，那里传统上是前苏联最贫穷和获得最多补贴的地区。由于缺乏可行的民主制度，苏联时代社会安全网的解体以及由此导致的普遍贫困已经如此严重，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的世俗社会中的兴起持谨慎态度。最近发生在吉尔吉斯斯坦的贫民起义，导致执政政府垮台，前总统阿卡耶夫突然辞职，说明了这些问题的紧迫性。这些调查将产生一个独特的国际比较数据集。在设计问卷时，将1996年俄罗斯国际社会正义项目（ISJP）中最初采用的翻译和预测问题与1999年在俄罗斯进行的国际社会调查项目（ISSP）和世界价值观调查（WVS）的社会不平等模块中的问题结合起来。利用已确立的问题，可以在理论上对中亚收集的数据与来自其他地方的现有数据集进行有趣的比较，并有助于确保可靠和有效的测量。

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.