Changes in the perception of inequalities in Poland over the last twenty years are used to shed light upon the psychological substratum of the events in that country in August 1980. The analysis is based on the results of the various empirical studies carried out in Poland during that period. They show that while the value of the abolition of inequalities was acquiring an increasing importance in the eyes of public opinion, people observed around them a growing dimension of inequalities. But greatest frustration was due to a decomposition of the system of meritocratic justice, accepted by the majority of the Poles, combined with the expansion of other, unaccepted, criteria for rewards. Thus the growth of increasing inequalities was accompanied by a total withdrawal of the legitimization of inequalities.
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