Educational systems, social inequality and the self-evaluation of inequality. The institutional base of individualization in international comparison

This paper proposes the hypothesis that in credentialist countries, educati on and class are more important for explaining patterns of collective socia l action than in non-credentialist countries. Standardized, stratified, and differentiated educational systems restrict the amount of intragenerationa l mobility, leading to more homogeneous, stable, and privileged social clas ses that pursue their interests collectively. In non-credentialist societie s, intragenenerational mobility is more frequent and less structured, so th at social classes become heterogeneous, unstable, and less privileged and p atterns of collective action are unlikely. This hypothesis is tested with data from the International Social Justice P roject (1991, 1996). The influence of class, education, and a number of cov ariants of subjective social status are examined for six countries. It can be shown that in countries with highly standardized, stratified and differe ntiated educational systems (West and East Germany and Hungary), class and education are more important for explaining this attitude than in non-crede ntialist societies (the USA, the UK. and Russia).