Weapons of the dissatisfied? Perceptions of socioeconomic inequality, redistributive preference, and political protest: Evidence from South Korea

Abstract

This paper explores how perceptions of socioeconomic inequality, attitudes about redistribution, and experiences of social upward mobility shape the level of participation in political protests. The dramatic widening of income inequality in Korean society since the 2007 financial breakdown and the new surge of political protests has continued to attract attention. However, scholars have not clearly examined how Korean views about socioeconomic inequality and redistribution affect political activism in protests. This study reflects on the hypotheses of the grievance theory and the resource theory, and investigates survey data to explore whether dissatisfaction with inequality and attitudes about redistribution have a systematic impact on the level of political activism in protests. Using data from the 2009 South Korea Social Survey Program, this study concludes that dissatisfaction with income disparity, dissatisfaction with educational inequality, and redistributive preferences, have a systematic impact in fostering active political engagement in protests.

Enigmas of grievances about inequality: Effects of attitudes toward inequality and government redistribution on protest participation

“…As suggested earlier, we theorize that an individual’s tolerance of economic inequality, belief in the government’s role in relation to redistributive policies, and assessment of upward social mobility are crucial segments of perceived inequality and may become a trigger for the mobilization of protest (Jo, 2016). Based on the literature review, we propose the following hypotheses:…”

“…Grievances about inequality are more multidimensional and multifaceted. Economic inequality is at times contingent on individually sensitive perceptions of distributive fairness and procedural justice that can be completely heterogeneous (Jo, 2016). This study proposes an alternative direction by suggesting novel micro-level indicators that more evidently capture the subjective attitudes of economic inequality and redistributive preferences at the individual level, shifting the focus from aggregate level proxy to personally biased perceptions of inequality.…”

“…This framework allows us to investigate beyond the simple distinction between objective and subjective inequality. We argue that the beliefs with regard to inequality and the government’s role in reducing inequality, as well as the perception of opportunities for mobility, are associated with political participation (Jo, 2016). Based on these hypotheses, this study provides an important supplement to the current literature.…”

The impacts of COVID-19 on the relationship between perceived economic inequality and political action among socioeconomic classes

“…Although these studies have established that individuals' perception of inequality predicts political action better than objective indicators of inequality (Jo and Choi, 2019;Lee and Kwon, 2019), the ways in which it affects political actions are found to vary. While some have shown that perceiving more inequality encourages individuals to engage in political action (Jo, 2016;Lee and Kwon, 2019), some others have found the opposite (Jo and Choi, 2019). In addition, it has also been found that perceiving more inequality motivates non-institutional forms of political action (e.g., petitioning) but not institutional actions, like voting (Lee and Kwon, 2019).…”