Is There Such Thing As Middle Class Values? Class Differences, Values and Political Orientations in Latin America

Lopez-Calva, Luis F. ; Rigolini, Jamele ; Torche, Florencia

关键词: ALIENATION;    ASSETS;    AVERAGE INCOME;    CIVIC ENGAGEMENT;    COUNTRY DUMMIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5874
RP-ID  :  WPS5874

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Middle class values have long beenperceived as drivers of social cohesion and growth. Thispaper investigates the relation between class (measured byposition in the income distribution), values, and politicalorientations using comparable values surveys for six LatinAmerican countries. The analysis finds that both acontinuous measure of income and categorical measures ofincome-based class are robustly associated with values. Bothincome and class tend to display a similar association tovalues and political orientations as education, althoughdifferences persist in some important dimensions. Overall,there is no strong evidence of any "middle classparticularism": values appear to gradually shift withincome, and middle class values are between the ones ofpoorer and richer classes. If any, the only peculiarity ofmiddle class values is moderation. The analysis also findschanges in values across countries to be of much largermagnitude than the ones dictated by income, education, andindividual characteristics, suggesting that individualvalues vary primarily within bounds dictated by each society.