Equality as the Criterion Separating Left from Right? Eastern and Western Europe 2002–2016

Lipset et al. (1954), Inglehart (1984) and Bobbio (1996) proposed that the left-right dimension as a measurement of ideology is, at its core, a conflict about equality. While Thorisdottir et al. (2007) found that left-wing individuals were more egalitarian than right-wing individuals in Western Europe, the same pattern did not hold in Eastern Europe in 2002. This paper examines this puzzle through two approaches. First, the regression models used by Thorisdottir et al. (2007) are replicated with data from the European Social Survey 2002, and the subsequent years up to 2016 are examined. This analysis shows that the pattern has changed over the years in favour of the egalitarian explanation – acceptance of inequality is now a predictor of right-wing attitudes in both Eastern and Western Europe. However, the patterns are not uniform in every country. Second, to further explore the egalitarian proposition, this paper considers different potential group/cleavage conflicts. Inglehart (1984: 293) proposed that equality as a core component of the left-right dimension often manifests itself through group conflicts, whether based on social class, sex/gender, nationality, or ethnicity. Groups with less favourable outcomes in society will often be associated with the left, since their group interests often align in favour of egalitarian social change. Therefore, this paper also runs multilevel regression models explaining left-right self-placements with policy attitudes towards issues that affect the equality of outcome between groups. While weaker in Eastern Europe, the patterns conform to Inglehart’s proposition and thus, more egalitarian attitudes predict left-wing self-placements in both Eastern and Western Europe.