Basic personal values and the meaning of left‐right political orientations in 20 countries.

TLDR: This article used personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of "left" and "right" political orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social Survey (2002-3) and compared the importance of personal values and socio-demographic variables as determinants of political orientation.

Abstract: This study used basic personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of ‘left’ and ‘right’ political orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social Survey (2002-3). It also compared the importance of personal values and socio-demographic variables as determinants of political orientation. Hypotheses drew on the different histories, prevailing culture, and socio-economic level of 3 sets of countries—liberal, traditional and post-communist. As hypothesized, universalism and benevolence values explained a left orientation in both liberal and traditional countries and conformity and tradition values explained a right orientation; values had little explanatory power in post-communist countries. Values predicted political orientation more strongly than socio-demographic variables in liberal countries, more weakly in post-communist countries, and about equally in traditional countries.

Figures

Table III. Significant covariances between value priorities and right self-placement

Figure 1 depicts this structure as a circular motivational continuum reflecting the conflict and compatibility among values. The closer any two values around the circle, the more compatible their motivations and therefore the more likely that the same action or attitude can express or attain both. The more distant any two values, the more conflicting their motivations and hence the less it is possible for the same action or attitude to express or attain both. This integrated structure of values means that any behavior or attitude that is congruent with one basic value (e.g., a right orientation with power) should also be congruent with the adjacent values in the circle (security and achievement) but in conflict with the opposing values (universalism, benevolence, and self-direction). Thus, the whole integrated structure of values relates systematically to other variables.

Table III. Significant covariances between value priorities and right self-placement

Table IV. Variance in political orientation accounted for by values and socio-demographic variables based on multi-group structural equation models

Table I. Sample sizes, means and standard deviations of self-placement on the left-right scale

Table II. Items that measure the 10 values in the ESS Human Values Scale

Full text

University of Zurich
Zurich Open Repository and Archive
Winterthurerstr. 190
CH-8057 Zurich
http://www.zora.uzh.ch
Year: 2011
Basic personal values and the meaning of left-right political
orientations in 20 countries
Piurko, Y; Schwartz, S H; Davidov, E
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2011.00828.x.
Postprint available at:
http://www.zora.uzh.ch
Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich.
http://www.zora.uzh.ch
Originally published at:
Piurko, Y; Schwartz, S H; Davidov, E (2011). Basic personal values and the meaning of left-right political
orientations in 20 countries. Political Psychology:Epub ahead of print.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2011.00828.x.
Postprint available at:
http://www.zora.uzh.ch
Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich.
http://www.zora.uzh.ch
Originally published at:
Piurko, Y; Schwartz, S H; Davidov, E (2011). Basic personal values and the meaning of left-right political
orientations in 20 countries. Political Psychology:Epub ahead of print.

Basic personal values and the meaning of left-right political
orientations in 20 countries
Abstract
This study used basic personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of ‘left' and ‘right' political
orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social Survey (2002-3). It also
compared the importance of personal values and socio-demographic variables as determinants of
political orientation. Hypotheses drew on the different histories, prevailing culture, and socio-economic
level of 3 sets of countries—liberal, traditional and post-communist. As hypothesized, universalism and
benevolence values explained a left orientation in both liberal and traditional countries and conformity
and tradition values explained a right orientation; values had little explanatory power in post-communist
countries. Values predicted political orientation more strongly than socio-demographic variables in
liberal countries, more weakly in post-communist countries, and about equally in traditional countries.

Basic Personal Values and the Meaning of Left-Right
Political Orientations in 20 Countries
Yuval Piurko and Shalom H. Schwartz
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
and
Eldad Davidov
University of Zurich, Switzerland
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for
publication in Political Psychology, following peer review.
The final publication is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com,
under URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-
9221.2011.00828.x/abstract,
or
under DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2011.00828.x
Keywords: Values, Left-Right, Political Orientations, Liberal, Traditional,
Post-Communist Countries

1
Abstract
This study used basic personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of ‘left’ and
‘right’ political orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social
Survey (2002-3). It also compared the importance of personal values and socio-demographic
variables as determinants of political orientation. Hypotheses drew on the different histories,
prevailing culture, and socio-economic level of 3 sets of countries—liberal, traditional and
post-communist. As hypothesized, universalism and benevolence values explained a left
orientation in both liberal and traditional countries and conformity and tradition values
explained a right orientation; values had little explanatory power in post-communist
countries. Values predicted political orientation more strongly than socio-demographic
variables in liberal countries, more weakly in post-communist countries, and about equally in
traditional countries.

2
Personal values appear increasingly central to political orientations (Caprara &
Zimbardo, 2004; Feldman, 1988; Franklin, Mackie & Valen, 1992). People use personal
values to organize and prioritize their beliefs and feelings regarding political issues, to make
and justify political decisions, and to communicate about politics (Caprara, et al., 2006;
Feldman, 2003; Schwartz, Caprara, & Vecchione, 2010; Sniderman, Brody & Tetlock, 1991).
Numerous scholars see values as the building blocks or principles underlying political
ideologies (e.g., Converse, 1964; Feldman, 1988; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz et al., 2010). Jost
et al. (2003) presented a social cognition framework that draws on psychological needs,
expressed in values, to account for differences in political orientation.
The current study examines the role of basic personal values in left-right political
orientations. It analyzes data from 20 countries that participated in the first round of the
European Social Survey (ESS). We address two aspects of the role of values. First, we use
people’s basic value priorities to shed light on variation in the motivational meaning of the
left-right political dimension across countries. This dimension has been used to summarize
political agendas in countries around the world, but its meanings may vary across countries
and political contexts (Greenberg & Jonas, 2003; Huber & Inglehart, 1995; Knutsen, 1998;
Thorisdottir et al., 2007). Relations of left and right orientations to people’s value priorities
can reveal the motivational meaning of the left-right dimension.
Second, we assess the relative importance of basic personal values and of socio-
demographic variables as determinants of left-right political orientation. Some scholars
suggest that values have replaced social structural position and group loyalties as the critical
determinants of voting behavior (Caprara & Zimbardo, 2004; Caprara et al., 2006; Schwartz,
et al., 2010). They found that personal values accounted for more variance in voting and
voting intentions in Italy and the USA than socio-demographic variables did. We test the

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Basic personal values and the meaning of left-right political orientations in 20 countries" ?

This study used basic personal values to elucidate the motivational meanings of ‘ left ' and ‘ right ' political orientations in 20 representative national samples from the European Social Survey ( 2002-3 ). This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Political Psychology, following peer review. 

Q2. How much of the variance in political orientation was accounted for by values alone?

The socio-demographic variables alone accounted for an average of 6% of the variance in political orientation in the liberal countries. 

Q3. What country did values explain more variance than socio-demographic variables?

In theliberal countries, values explained nearly twice as much variance in political orientation as socio-demographic variables did; in the post-communist countries values explained less than a third of the variance socio-demographic variables did with the exception of the Czech Republic. 

Q4. In what countries did right self-placement covarate positively with tradition values?

In the post-communist countries, right self-placement covaried positively though notstrongly with tradition values in three of four countries. 

Q5. What countries predicted political orientation better than values?

In sum, as hypothesized, values predicted political orientation more strongly thansocio-demographic variables in liberal countries but socio-demographic variables predicted more strongly in three of four post-communist countries. 

Q6. What are the main reasons for the conflict in European liberal democracies?

The conflict in European liberal democracies between supporters of conservation and maintenance of the hierarchical social order and supporters of welfare and equality reflect these motivations. 

Q7. What is the meaning of basic personal values in the liberal countries?

Basic personal values have indeed assumed a more important role than social structuralposition as determinants of political orientations in the liberal countries.