Abstract
Economic classes represent groupings of individuals in terms of some long-run distribution of economic advantages. Recessions and inflations impose unequal short-run costs which may or may not be congruent with class inequalities. This paper begins with the hypothesis that the class structure channels the personal impacts of macroeconomic fluctuations and helps to explain the opinion formation process which underlies any observed political response. The empirical puzzle involves properly specifying and implementing a test of this hypothesis.
I outline two alternative conceptions of social stratification: one emphasizing individualistic competition for places in a continuously rankedstatus system, and the other focusing on patterned inequalities arising in the productive process and resulting in a discontinuous distribution ofclasses. The two are only modestly related empirically.
The analysis section of the paper shows that status and class covary in distinctive ways with measures of financial condition and political opinion. The paper suggests that earlier research based on continuous indexes of social status may have erred in concluding that stratification is irrelevant to short-run fluctuations in political opinion.
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Weatherford, M.S. Recessions and social classes: Economic impacts and political opinions. Polit Behav 4, 7–31 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987117
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00987117
Keywords
- Class Structure
- Alternative Conception
- Opinion Formation
- Economic Advantage
- Structure Channel