Gordey Yastrebov National Research University – Higher School of Economics

1. Exploring social stratification in West- and East-European states: the cases of ‘meritocracy’ and ‘mediocracy’ Gordey Yastrebov National Research University – Higher School of Economics Laboratory for Comparative Analysis of Post-Socialist Development 10th ESA Conference. Geneve, Switzerland. September 2011.

2. Context of research Most comparative stratification research relies on various theoretical class schemas, e.g. J.H. Goldthorpe, E.O. Wright, G. Esping-Andersen, ESeC, CAMSIS, etc… …but they are more or less similar in recognizing markets, relations of private property and division of labor as major mechanisms of social differentiation in modern societies Is this, however, a productive approach as far as societies with different institutional setups are concerned?

3. ‘Estates’ vs classes i.e. estates as basic social groups originating from power ranks rather than labor and property relations (classes). Shkaratan 2009, Kordonsky 2008, Shlapentokh 2006, etc.: Contemporary Russian society is quite an organic extension to it predecessor [Soviet society] in the sense that it combines class (capitalist) and ‘estate’ (pre-capitalist) stratification. Is Russia (and other similar societies) really that different from modern Western societies with respect to its system of social stratification?

4. Hypotheses • Western societies are more meritocratic in the sense that there is a far stronger degree of matching between individual occupation, education and economic rewards than is observed in the post-socialist states. And this matching is expected to decline in statist societies. • Higher meritocracy in Western societies is also associated with less predictable and more intense social mobility.

5. The declining continuity of ‘statist’ institutions from East to West Russia and other post-Soviet states, except Baltic states and Ukraine. Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, etc. Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, etc. capitalism statism

6. Data and method • European Social Survey, Round 3, 2006 • Comparable data across 20+ European countries, including Russia • Relevant indicators (data about education, income, occupation of respondents and their parents) • Statistical analysis (testing construct validity of multidimensional representation of inequality with entropy analysis)

7. «Meritocracy» of social inequality in European statesin terms of non-uniformity (HN) of space ‘education – occupation – economic rewards’

8. Perceptions of «meritocracy»

9. Rates of intergenerational social ‘immobility’(as a % of respondents with social status similar to that of their parents)

10. Rates of downward intergenerational social mobility(as a % of respondents with lower social status than that of their parents)

11. Rates of upward intergenerational social mobility(as a % of respondents with higher social status than that of their parents)

12. Conclusions • There is certain linkage between the mechanism of inequality and the institutional setting • The more advanced Western societies more capable of sustaining meritocracy (with Scandinavian social democracies being, perhaps, most successful) • Poland can be considered a meritocracy, with Poles, however, being mostly dissatisfied with current allocation of economic rewards • The social structures of Russia and Portugal are among the most stagnant in Europe, showing little mobility associated with achievement, effort and skills.

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14. Operational definition of social status (ESS)

15. The sense of spatial uniformity measures based on concept of entropy (information theory) HN→ 1HN→ 0 Illustrations fromMorgan S.L., Grusky D.B., Fields G.S. (Eds.) Mobility and Inequality: Frontiers of Research in Sociology and Economics. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006. P. 96, 101