Social justice and inequality in the mirror of public opinion: Dynamics and specifics

The article considers the dynamics of Russians’ ideas about social justice and its content, including in the context of various forms of inequality as a derivative of social injustice, based on the empirical data of the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center for Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The author argues that the “turning point” in the perception of social justice occurred in the mid-2000s, and since then there have been no qualitative leaps. However, there is still a demand for improving the situation with social justice and reducing inequalities, since the share of Russians who often feel social injustice and see deterioration in this area over the past decade has exceeded the share of those who are optimistic and practically do not feel any social injustice. The article describes the relationship between a pessimistic perception of the situation and social justice and ill-being (not only material), noting that social justice in the Russian public consciousness is associated with two demands - for equality of income and living standards and for equality of non-material opportunities, including implementation of meritocratic principles. The first demand is more typical for the most materially disadvantaged groups and the elderly, the second - for economically active groups and the youth. These two interpretations of social justice are also reproduced in the perception of inequality, the key forms of which for Russians are income inequality and inequal access to necessary medical care, good jobs and housing conditions. Those Russians who consider their position in society to be low tend to perceive inequality more acutely, while the most advantaged groups show a rather tolerant attitude towards it. The author insists on the preservation of the request for improving the situation with social justice and reducing illegitimate inequalities, taking into account various interpretations of social justice in the Russian public consciousness. In particular, requests for reducing certain types of inequality are associated with material status and non-material well-being (including their subjective types).