The attitudinal legacy of communist labor relations

Abstract

This study of workers' attitudes compares data from International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) surveys for former communist countries in Europe with ISSP data for Western countries over the period 1987-93, which covers the beginning of the transition to a market economy for the former communist countries. Consistent with their hypothesis that communist-run economies left an attitudinal "legacy," the authors find that the citizens of former communist countries evinced a greater desire for egalitarianism, less satisfaction with their jobs, and more support for strong trade unions and state intervention in the job market and economy than did Westerners. Over the course of the period studied, however, residents of the former communist European countries perceived sizable increases in occupational earnings differenltals, and they adjusted their views of the differentials that "ought to" exist in their economies in the direction of greater inequality.