Benefit or procedure? Determinants of perceived distributive fairness in rural China

Abstract

Although distributive fairness significantly affects a wide range of political attitudes, such as legitimacy perceptions, our understanding of the determinants of individuals’ fairness judgments in countries without competitive elections, which adopt deliberative practices in lieu of popular elections in decision-making, remains inadequate. Using original survey data about the Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) program in rural China, we find that the awareness of public deliberation in poverty identification is a dominant determinant of individuals’ fairness judgments about TPA. Moreover, this procedural awareness dampens, rather than promotes, the positive effect of material benefits on perceived fairness, meaning that the awareness boosts individuals’ fairness judgments, especially among non-beneficiaries. The findings suggest that the poor segment of Chinese rural citizenry does care about the procedure through which the allocational decisions are made other than instrumental or substantive outcomes. Procedural justice functions as an equalizer that maintains the consent of non-beneficiaries or economic “losers”. Our study enhances the understanding of distributive fairness beyond Western advanced economies.