Political participation and perceptions of justice and fairness: evidence from ESS data

Abstract

There is a huge gap in research about the connection between political participation and perception of justice and fairness since few authors have analysed this phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to analyse the connection between political participation and people’s perception of fairness and justice, using a representative sample of the European Social Survey (ESS). This article is based on European Social Survey data of the 9th Round. Interviews were carried out with 47,086 respondents aged 15 and over in 27 European countries. The method of statistical data analysis was the correlation analysis of measures of political participation and measures of perceptions and evaluations of justice and fairness (Pearson’s r coefficient). From the results of the study, it was concluded that people participating in all political activities more often agree that society is fair when the political system allows people to have a say in what the government does. Keywords: Distributive justice; Europe; fairness; justice; political participation; procedural justice.