JUSTICE IN THE PROCEDURES AS THE FACTOR OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CURRENT POLITICAL SYSTEM IN THE COUNTRY

Abstract

The paper deals with the results of the empirical investigation of the role of the procedural justice in shaping citizens’ attitudes towards the current political system. The investigation focused on the interrelations among the perceived procedural justice within the political domain, subjective evaluations of the national economic context, and overall the attitudes towards existing political institutions. The central assumption was the fact that abiding the principles of procedural justice in the political processes contributes to more favorable evaluations of the political system, with this effect being particularly salient among individuals who assess the country’s economic situation negatively. Thus, the procedural justice was conceptualized as a mechanism capable of partially mitigating the adverse influence of economic hardship on the political attitudes.

The study empirically examined two hypotheses. The first one posited a positive association between the perceived procedural justice and attitudes towards the political system. The second one hypothesized a moderating effect of outcome evaluations, suggesting that the strength of this association would increase as the perceptions of outcome positivity – operationalized through assessments of the national economic situation – decline.

The procedural justice was defined as the citizens’ perceptions of whether the conduct of political actors and institutions conforms to the established the norms of justice in decision-making processes, whereas the perceived outcome positivity referred to the subjective judgments about the country’s economic conditions. The obtained results indicated that the perceived procedural justice – manifested in beliefs about one’s capacity to influence political decisions and experiences of impartial and respectful treatment by public authorities – constitutes a significant predictor of attitudes towards the politicians and political institutions.