Class Identification in Modern Democracies: A Comparative Study of its Sources and Effects

This dissertation explores the extent to which people are class aware in modern democratic society. I investigate whether the positions people occupy in the class structure, and the perceptions of where they think they fit, influence attitudes toward economic inequality. This research also considers the social and political consequences of national-level income inequality for class awareness. Market household income inequality has grown substantially in most modern societies since the 1990s. At the same time, government effort to reduce inequality has waned. I examine whether attitudes differ in countries with low and high inequality, and whether class awareness plays a role in shaping how people think about economic inequality. I find that class identities are more polarized in unequal societies, and that even if people perceive inequality as legitimate, they would prefer it to be reduced if it might improve their own economic position.My findings suggest that people's class identities and their preferences for inequality strongly reflect their economic positions. Yet, I also find that class attitudes change at different levels of income inequality. This is because when inequality rises more people in society feel its adverse effects. My research shows that people across the class structure in all societies understand how economic inequality affects their lives. More importantly, people understand how they might benefit from inequality changing. This awareness holds significant policy implications, especially if inequality continues to grow. These conclusions are drawn from two sources of individual-level survey data spanning nearly two decades. Each substantive chapter employs a cross-national analysis. In total, I investigate class identification and awareness in 42 countries, using three waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) collected from 1990-2006, and two waves of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) Inequality Module collected from 1999-2009. I extract country-level data from various sources, including the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Standardized Income Inequality Database (SWIID), the World Bank (www.worldbank.org), and the CIA World Factbook (www.cia.gov).Ph.D