Judgments about Inequality and Economic Elite among the Middle Classes: Discontents and Sociology of Critique

Oscar Mac-Clure, Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile. Emmanuelle Barozet , Universidad de Chile, Chile.

What do individuals in emerging countries (Chile in this case) feel and think about their national economic elite?

Chile: a country with marked socioeconomic inequalities Does a critique emerge towards the extreme inequalities represented by the national elite?

We consider the economic elite as a whole, but also the distinction between the traditional elite and that of recent mobility as prototypes that, regardless of whether they constitute a single social actor, are capable of mobilizing diverse subjective judgments from the individuals in society.

Research problem: What is felt and thought in everyday life about economic elite?

The functioning of markets in the global economy generates inequality and an extreme concentration of wealth (Bourguignon, 2012; Piketty, 2013), especially in the one percent of the population that constitutes an “economic elite” (Stiglitz, 2012).

Boltanski (Presidential Plenary at ISA 2014): the “patrimonial class”.

Economic elite: one of the most relevant expressions of inequality at the world level.

Global economy: “the 1 per cent”

The tradition of critical social theory: unveiling the structures and mechanisms that (re)produce systems of inequalities.

Honneth (1995) and Boltanski (2009): a perspective that stresses the rise of social critique from the actors themselves.

Economic elite and sociology of critique

1) In what way popular sectors and middle classes identify the economic elite and distinguish it from other social strata?

2) Is there a perception of injustice or discontent with respect to the economic elite or, on the contrary, is there a predominant acceptance and justification of the privileged position of the elite?

3) Do the judgments vary depending on diverse sectors composing the economic elite?

4) What influences people’s judgment about the elites?

Research questions focused mainly on the perception and judgement of the middle classes; popular sectors as comparison groups

Experimental games • Increasingly used in recent decades in social studies.• A methodology aimed at a better understanding of social issues, without intending to get a statistical representativeness with respect to the whole population (although we will later reexamine this point).

Unknown person gamePlayers who must discover a character about which they can get partial information, paying for this information. France: Boltanski & Thévenot, 1983; Desrosières & Thévenot, 1988; Brousse et al., 2014.European Union: Filhon et al., 2013.

Dictator game Altruism / aversion to inequality

Henrich et al., 2005, 2010Engel, 2010

Dictator game variant: donations to diverse nonprofit organizationsUS: Eckel & Grossman, 1996, 2006; Eckel, Grossman & Milano, 2007.Netherlands: Bekkers, 2007.

Fieldwork – Chile (2013)6 groups in 3 cities (Santiago, Concepción, Chillán) =18 groups3 players in each group = 54 players

Methodology based on experimental games

How do regular people identify and describe the elite, at a level other than the political and economic-enterprising space that is better known through public information and debate? = Solving an enigma similar to what happens in social life: economic elite is composed of a reduced set of individuals that isolate themselves as a function of their interests.

• A matching game: 3 unknown characters - middle class, recent mobility elite and traditional elite.• US$ 36 in fake money for each player to buy response cards from the moderator. • Price of each question: marked on cards available to the participants, and each player could buy the answers that were of interest to him. • To give rise to knowledge and intuitive interpretations belonging to the everyday interaction of the participants in the exercise, the price structure of the questions and answers is based on the distinction between three kinds of resources: economic, social and cultural capital. The questions referring to the economic capital were in general more expensive than the others, while those that provided more indirect clues were less expensive

Winner of the game: the person who wrote a better description of each of the three individuals and spent less money to do it.

Unknown person game: discovering economic elite

The categorization of the economic elite

Type of question Questions used

Amount spent

Economic capital 2% 9%Cultural capital 63% 56%Social capital 36% 35%Total 100% 100%

Unknown person game: types of resources used by the players.

How are unknown persons of the economic elite discovered: Some people do discover them from noneconomic signs that they articulate in an interpretation based on cultural and social capital.

The elite is not fully recognized as such by everyone: it is perceived partially and only by some.

A player is given an amount of money of which he/she can assign a part to a stranger that simply plays the role of receiver.

• The players were informed that each of the three persons of the first game owns a nonprofit organization that helps needy persons, to which they could assign all or none of the money received.• Each player received an amount of fake money equivalent to US$ 36.• The players assigned the money silently and separately from the other participants. • This unleashed the players' preferences and judgments about the characters to whom they could now give money for their corresponding foundations.

This allows analyzing in what way the judgments of the participants differ with respect to the two elite and the middle class individuals.

Dictator game: judgements about economic elite

Dictator game: average amounts spent by the players

Judgment of the elite: the dictator game

Money assignments Average assigned amount

Middle class 46%

New elite 17%

Traditional elite 10%

Kept by the player 28%

Total 100%

.

Judgment of the elite: it is judged critically, in particular the traditional elite, and to a smaller extent the recent elite, in contrast with a more positive evaluation of the middle class.

1. Cognition: not equal to judgementWhat is at stake in the critical judgments of the players is above all the economic capital of the members of the elite, and not the cultural or social capital used to identify them cognitively.

2. Criteria of evaluation based on economic capital, but…• What is judged critically is more the separation caused by the economic assets of the elite with respect to the rest of society, than their privileged economic position or the rules of the game that benefit its members.• The members of the elite are mostly criticized for their behaviour towards the less privileged. The criteria applied refers mainly to interpersonal treatment : Are people treated with dignity and respect by the elite individuals? • It is a criticism in which a justice of the procedures prevails over a distributive (substantive) justice relative to the unequal distribution of the assets and to the structural inequalities.

3. Procedural justice referred mostly to…This criticism based on procedural justice acquires greater intensity with respect to the traditional economic elite than to the recent elite.

Criticism towards the elite: criteria of evaluation

• The most intense criticism of the elite, mainly the traditional one, comes from the Lower Level Non-manual Routine class composed of salespeople, cashiers and similar occupations.• Compared to Manual Workers, they qualify the economic elite more negatively the opposite of the prototype of the conflict between workers and capitalists during most of the 20th century!

Criticism towards the elite: who criticizes?Groups of participants (players)

by social classRelative appreciationof the economic elites

Higher Level Service classUnfavorable to both elitesExample: Lawyer

Lower Level Service class Unfavorable to both elites, especially the traditional eliteExample: Electronics technician

Higher Level Routine Non-manual classVery unfavorable to both elitesExample: Administrative employee, secretary

Lower Level Routine Non-manual class Very unfavorable to both elites, especially the traditional eliteExample: Salesman in store

Self Employed and Small ProprietorsLow rejection of both elites Example: Small merchant

Unskilled Manual WorkersLow rejection of both elites Example: Construction worker

At a global level

To what extent our results may be comparable to similar situations in other countries?

Is there a global convergence in the subjective appreciations with respect to the economic elite (national and global)?

Prospects

Reproducing experimental games through a survey at national level: statistical representation of the population (2016).

Comparison with similar surveys based on games in other countries: France, Netherlands, European Union.

Looking forward - Prospects

Thank you !

Oscar Mac-Clure, Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile. oscar.macclure@ulagos.cl

Emmanuelle Barozet , Universidad de Chile, Chile. ebarozet@uchile.cl

Dictator game: Logit regression model for assigning or not more money to the middle class characters

with respect to the elite characters, according to city of residence and social class.

Judgment of the elite versus middle class: determinants

.

Variables Odd ratioCity of residence (Chillán) Santiago - Concepción -Social class (Manual workers) Higher Level Service class 11.564* Lower Level Service class 11.564* Higher Level Non-manual Routine class 34.361** Lower Level Non-manual Routine class 80.591*** Self Employed and Small Proprietors -Constant --2 log of verosimilitude vs. null model 55.545***Nagelkerke R square; n .397; 54*p<0.1 **p<0.05 *** p<0.01.

Dictator game: Logit regression model for assigning or not more money to the recent elite characters with

respect to the traditional elite characters, according to city of residence and social class.

Diverse judgments about recent and traditional elites : determinants

.

Variables Odd ratio

City of residence (Chillán) Santiago - Concepción -Social class (Manual Workers) Higher Level Service class - Lower Level Service class 35.111* Higher Level Routine Non-manual class - Lower Level Routine Non-manual class 31.018** Self Employed and Small Proprietors -Constant --2 log verosimilitude vs. null model 52.654**Nagelkerke R square; n .358; 54*p<0.1 **p<0.05 *** p<0.01.