世代正義與機構信任——以香港為例

Abstract

公平與公正是現代政治學追求的永恆目標。由於資源分配天然地具有國家之間，地區之間，不同時代之間以及不同個體之間的不均衡，如何分配資源是有關民生的重要主題，也是構築機構信任的重要基石。然而，即使是同一國家和同一地區的民眾，在不同的世代可能會經歷不同的向上流動的機會。父輩與子輩之間很可能有著不同的社會機會結構，而子輩很可能會以父輩為參照，有維持父輩社會經濟地位或提高社會經濟地位的期待。然而，自20世紀末經濟危機以來，許多亞洲經濟體經歷了M型社會，即社會財富-人口統計曲線大致呈現為「M」字，即中產階級的消失。這很可能意味著社會階級流動的減少甚至消失。本文根據此提出研究假設，認為個體在感知到自身社會階級向上流動受限時，會降低其對機構的信任程度。由於香港是亞洲社會較為經典的貧富差距較大的地區，且由於其面積較小，內部更具均質性，故將其作為研究對象，並希望能夠將其作為解釋香港社會問題的原因之一。本文使用東亞民主動態調查香港地區的第五波數據，通過簡單線性回歸發現年齡，受教育年限以及對社會機會結構的感知對機構信任程度具有相關性。

Fairness and justice are eternal goals pursued by modern political science. Due to the natural imbalance in resource distribution between nations, regions, different eras, and individual entities, how resources are allocated is an essential subject concerning people's livelihood, and a vital cornerstone for building institutional trust. However, even within the same country and region, citizens across different generations may experience various opportunities for upward mobility. Parents and their children likely have different social opportunity structures, and children often reference their parents, expecting to maintain or enhance their socio-economic status. However, since the economic crisis at the end of the 20th century, many Asian economies have experienced an M-shaped society, where the socio-economic population curve roughly presents an 'M,' symbolizing the disappearance of the middle class. This likely signifies a reduction or even disappearance of social class mobility. Based on this, the paper proposes a research hypothesis, suggesting that individuals, when perceiving their limited upward social class mobility, will decrease their trust in institutions. Since Hong Kong is a classic example of a region in Asia with a significant wealth gap and has greater internal homogeneity due to its smaller area, it is chosen as the subject of study, and the paper aims to use it as an explanation for one of the social problems in Hong Kong. Using the fifth wave of data from the Asian Barometer Survey in the Hong Kong area, this paper discovers through simple linear regression that age, years of education, and perception of social opportunity structure are correlated with the level of trust in institutions.