 Comment les Français perçoivent-ils l’égalité des chances ?Michel Forsé and Maxime Parodi Revue de l'OFCE, 2016, vol. N° 146, issue 2, 67-88 Abstract: Do the French believe in equality of opportunity? The survey ?Dynegal? asked the question in 2013 to a representative sample of 4000 individuals and their responses are quite divided. The middle class is more convinced than other that school gives everyone a chance and that success in life does not depend on social origin. This result is consistent with Simmel?s thesis granting to the middle class a key role in social mobility. The survey also asked questions about the relationship between belief in equality of opportunity and social expectations in terms of recognition of merit and equal results. As expected, the less people believe in equal opportunities, the less they defend recognition of merit, and the more they demand equality of results. In contrast, these French who are perfectly convinced that everyone has the same chance of success defend not only the recognition of merit, but also equality of places. This unexpected result reveals, in fact, a risk inherent in a society thought as completely meritocratic: the risk of absolutely discrediting the losers and not finding them their places in the society. JEL : D63, Z13. Keywords: equality of opportunity; social classes; school; social mobility; merit; perception of inequalities; social justice (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cai:reofsp:reof_146_0067 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Revue de l'OFCE from Presses de Sciences-Po |
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