The Perception of Social Inequality Around the Globe. Editorial Introduction to the 2019 ISSP Social Inequality Module and Selected Country-Level Findings

Abstract

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) recently released the 5th survey on the perception of social inequalities. The data was collected in more than 30 countries around the globe. This introduction offers an overview of the substantive contributions that are included in the two special issues on these data. It also presents results from an analysis of the recent ISSP data that shows how people perceive social inequalities, assess current levels of taxation and the performance of the government, experience inequality, and to what extent they trust other people. Despite evident variations across countries, the analysis highlights that respondents’ views continue to align with the conventional classification of countries into liberal welfare states, Scandinavian welfare states, continental welfare states, and post-communist countries.