PROCEDURAL JUSTICE AND THE ALLOCATION OF POWER IN INTERGROUP RELATIONS - STUDIES IN THE UNITED-STATES AND SOUTH-AFRICA

This study explored preferences for the proportionality (PR) versus equality (EQ) principles in the allocation of political power and other resources between majorities and minorities. Preferences for PR were expected when individual-level justice was salient and for EQ when group-level justice was salient. Group-level concerns were expected to be more salient for minorities than majorities for procedural resources and for group-level than individual-level distributive resources. Consistent with expectations, subjects from the United States and South Africa were more likely to divide a procedural resource (political power) equally between two simulated ethnic groups differing in size when led to identify with a minority than a majority. Equality was also more salient to members of real ethnic minorities than members of ethnic majorities. With regard to distributive resources, PR was predominant in the distribution of individual-level material resources and EQ in the distribution of group-level symbolic resources.