Social Change and Anomie: A Cross-National Study

Abstract

We apply Durkheim's social transitional theory to explain the variation of anomie in 30 nations in the world. Combining data from two sources -the 1995 World Values Survey and the United Nations University's World Income Inequality Database or WIID -we test the hypothesis that rapid sociopolitical change at the structural level disrupts social integration and regulation, and increases the level of anomie among individuals in a society. Using the multilevel approach that permits the decomposition of variance within and between nations, the results of the analyses confirm that rapid sociopolitical change at the macro level, such as the political transition from totalitarianism to democracy, produces a higher level of anomie among individuals in a society. In addition, we find a cross-level effect of confidence in authority on anomie. Findings at the individual level are largely consistent with Merton's theory of anomie and with the extant literature that anomie is inversely related to an individual's social and economic position in a society.

The impact of political entity on confidence in legal authorities: A comparison between China and Taiwan

“…Democratic transition in many nations has never been smooth (Zhao & Cao, 2010), and it was especially painful for people who got used to an orderly society such as Taiwan. The sense of normlessness was widespread in Taiwan and public opinions become an outlet of its residents, driving down the confidence even further.…”

Do in-group and out-group forms of trust matter in predicting confidence in the order institutions? A study of three culturally distinct countries

“…China is excluded from this study because it is not a democratic state and because the critical data are missing due to the fact that one third of the Chinese respondents did not answer all the questions on trust. Trust theory is strongly linked to theories of civic society and democracy (Inglehart, 1997;Newton, 2001;Paxton, 2002;Putnam, 1993;Zhao and Cao, 2010). Comparing nations with different political regimes adds another layer of complexity which would unduly obfuscate any findings derived .…”

Anomie in the Oil Patch: A Preliminary Analysis

“…While most empirical studies utilize anomie as an independent variable, Zhao and Cao (2010) treat anomie as a strictly dependent variable in their analysis. Their study produces an anomie score based on respondents' answers concerning "the legitimacy of five instrumental crime-related scenarios" (p. 1217) in countries undergoing various degrees or rates of social change.…”