Perceived Inequality and the Formation of National Pride in Korea

Politico-economic explanations for the difference in levels ofnational pride argue that states create, reinforce, and mobilizenationalism to divert public attention to prevent citizens demandinga redistributive policy when the level of income inequality is high. This paper challenges the assumption of the theory of “diversionarynationalism” that the effect of nationalistic mobilization is uniform across all strata of groups within a society. The results of our statisticalanalysis of the 2009 Korean General Social Survey show that the effectof the perceived income inequality on national pride varies by ideologicalorientation. Conservatives tend to have stronger nationalpride when they perceive income inequality as high, whereas liberalsare likely to have weaker national pride upon perceived incomeinequality.