Abstract
This article deals with consensus on norms on how incomes in a society ought to be distributed. Functionalist theories presume consensus between almost all members of a society. Marxist theories presume at least some dissension, e.g., persons in unfavorable positions will support the achievement principle to a lesser extent and the equality and need principle to a larger measure. In 1987, a vignette study was conducted among a sample of 795 individuals representative of the Dutch population between the ages of 18 and 70. The respondents were presented with a random sample of 15 vignettes and requested to assign a fair income to the described household. A total of 11,394 fair incomes were assigned to the virgnettes. In the analysis the respondents were grouped on value patterns and income position. There was consensus on the main achievement attribute “occupational prestige” in assigning fair incomes. There was also some dissension discernible between different groups. However, neither of the theories was fully corroborated.
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Hermkens, P.L.J., Boerman, F.A. Consensus with respect to the fairness of incomes: Differences between social groups. Soc Just Res 3, 201–215 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048449
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048449