Inequality, Social Justice and Transformative Change in Russia and China: Who Feels Better in Big Cities?

The paper raises a question of egalitarian demand in the transforming societies such as Russia and China. It involves unique comparative data from the surveys of adult population of two big cities (St.-Petersburg and Shanghai). Economic and political reforms go differently by speed and ways of implementation in these countries, however produce the similar challenges. Increasing social inequality evokes public awareness of social justice and egalitarian thoughts in both Russia and China, but egalitarian demands differ in a number of aspects.

The study reveals that Russian citizens produce more radical egalitarian demand as they view the changes in distributional arrangements as unfair zero-sum game in which some high status groups and privileged citizens appropriate much of economic benefits, whereas in China the perception of distributional regime applies rather variable-sum principle and provokes functional egalitarianism with focus on introducing reformist measures for social inequality reduction. 

The data shows that the model in which the most economically deprived and lower status groups feel more radical in terms of welfare distribution not exactly true for Russian and Chinese cases but in different ways. There is the evidence that in Shanghai those with higher status position express less radical but functional egalitarian demand. In St.-Petersburg the professionals with higher education feel deeper resentment in comparison with those in Shanghai and express more radical egalitarian views. The paper offers explanation of found similarities and differences by looking at the institutional changes and their adjustment to cultural contexts.