Post-socialist anomie through the lens of economic modernization and the formalization of social control

Christopher Swader () and Leon Kosals ()
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Christopher Swader: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, NRU-HSE. Senior Researcher, Laboratory for Comparative Social Reseach, NRU-HSE
Leon Kosals: Professor, Department of Sociology, NRU-HSE. Chief Researcher, Laboratory for Comparative Social Reseach, NRU-HSE

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: This paper inquires into how economic modernization impacts normative regulation by spurring, on the one hand (a) formal media of normative regulation (also known as formal social control) in the spheres of politics, economics and interpersonal relations and, on the other hand, (b) informality via the lower density of norms (also known as anomie). This work then asks how these two processes relate to one another. Evidence indicates that modernization is clearly linked to formal media of normative regulation in the spheres of politics (measured as greater government effectiveness), economics (i.e. lower proportion of shadow economy), and interpersonal relations (i.e. less reliance upon family and friendships). Moreso, our multi-level regression models, using World Values Survey data, report that political formality (government effectiveness) at the country level is linked to less anomie at the individual level. Overall, we suggest that economic growth initially brings normlessness through undermining informal social control. However, with greater economic stock, there is a tendency for greater political formalization, formal social control, which brings levels of anomie down. Furthermore, even after all controls, there is a strong anomie syndrome in post-communist societies

Keywords: economic modernization; formality; informality; social control; anomie; post-socialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O1 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue and nep-soc
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Published in WP BRP Series: Sociology / SOC, March 2013, pages 1-32

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