Status Inconsistency as Predictor of Public Action Attitudes in Romania

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of status inconsistency as a predictor of public action attitudes. Its first basic hypothesis is that democratic, authoritarian, participatory and rebellion attitudes towards the way in which public problems are solved can be identified as relevant social types in a transition society. Specific social segments are structured around these attitudes. The second hypothesis implies that status inconsistencies, at household or personal levels, have a significant predictive power in explaining the structuring of these attitudes, even when the vertical dimensions of status, context and cognitive factors are controlled. The four attitude groups could be located within Almond and Verba’s taxonomy of political culture. Authoritarians are bearers of subject culture. Rebellion-oriented people are closer to parochial or parochial-subject culture. Democratic orientation points to subject-participatory political culture. The participatory orientation is relevant for participatory culture or, in some of its weak forms, parochial-participatory values.