Why Do the Affluent Find Inequality Increasingly Unjust? Changing Inequality and Justice Perceptions in Germany, 1994–2014

Abstract

In the wake of rising inequality in Germany during the last 20 years, we document a corresponding increase in perceptions of injustice among the population. Based on data from the cumulated German General Social Survey (ALLBUS), we show that this increase in perceived injustice is driven mainly by a rising share of affluent respondents who find society unjust, resulting in a convergence across income groups towards more critical attitudes. We try to explain this puzzling development based on outcome-related justice assessments and perceptions of procedural justice. We find that outcome-related justice assessments cannot explain the trend over time, but affect the overall level of injustice perceptions. The influence of perceptions of procedural justice, however, is more pronounced among affluent respondents and partly explains the increase in injustice perceptions within this group. These results are robust for different operationalizations as well as model specifications and are not due to compositional effects. Since we cannot account entirely for the rise in injustice perceptions among the affluent, explanatory factors not covered by our data are likely to exist. We conclude with a discussion of potential explanations that future research should address.