Relative Deprivation in Buganda: The Relation of Wealth, Security, and Opportunity to the Perception of Economic Satisfaction

The concept of relative deprivation is drawn upon to explain a wide range of social & political phenomena. Several specific hypotheses derived from this concept are presented, associating it with poverty, awareness of modern lifestyles, aspirations for high consumption, lack of formal education, ascription of responsibility for rewards to uncontrollable external sources, femaleness, & arguing that factors causing relative deprivation in objectively wealthy & objectively poor persons are not the same. Baganda tribesmen in Uganda, living in a Ru, an intermediate, & an Ur area, provide a sample of 100 from each site for testing these hypotheses. A relative deprivation index is compared with possible explanatory variables. Relative deprivation shows significant (.01 level) correlations with poverty, Ru residence, lack of exposure to modern consumer goods, low education, & lack of optimism & efficacy. Controlling for material wealth eliminates the effect of Ru residence & exposure to consumption opportunities, suggesting that these factors have their apparent effect through being correlated with poverty. Thus, 3 hypotheses are confirmed, none definitely rejected. 136 persons above Md wealth show primary association of relative deprivation with lack of efficacy-optimism; 164 persons below Md wealth with lack of education (confirming the 7th hypothesis. Some possible explanations based on an impressionistic review of interviews with S's are considered, stressing the significance of subjective factors. 4 Tables. W. H. Stoddard.