Economic Stress as a Source of Societal Discontent

Abstract

Ever since Marx, social theory has been concerned with linking conflict and alienation to its economic bases. The German sociologist Theodor Geiger in the late twenties had already identified the economically declining self-employed middle classes as the main breeding ground for Nazism.¹⁾ At the same time, Marie Lazarsfeld-Jahoda and Hans Zeisel analyzed the consequences of large scale unemployment following the closing of a plant on community participation, self-esteem, and mental health.²⁾ Seymour Martin Lipset, in his cross-cultural study, was concerned with the economic and social preconditions of democratic government,³⁾ while Philip E. Converse ⁴⁾ dealt with the relationship of intertemporal differences in economic activity on status polarization of issue considerations and voting behavior. These are only a few examples to illustrate the diversity of approach to the general theme.

Work on the paper was financed through NSF grant GS-3244. The author is indebted to Anthony P. Jiga for skillful assistance and to Richard T. Curtin, Lutz Erbring, Gerald Gurin, George Katona, M. Susan Schwartz, and Ephraim Yuchtman for valuable advice.