Previous research has revealed pro-social cooperation to be an evolutionary, economic and social advantage for groups.  Yet, cross-cultural studies and international business strategies often overlook this important intangible feature of collective life.  In this pioneering study of an important but neglected social capital variable, we define the concept, explain its importance, identify the best available indicators for developing a cooperative metric and compare nations in an experimental statistical model. Two measures for cooperation emerge from this study. The first tracks democratic conditions, rule-oflaw, GDP, HDI, and the lesser used Freedom of Media index combined with the less familiar reported “on the ground” survey evidence available from the World Values Survey (Institutional Cooperation - IC).  The second construct draws only from World Survey data to capture the overall reported moral inclination to transcend self and work with unknown others (Transcendental Values = TV).  Using confirmatory factor analysis for internal validity and measurement invariance of IC and TV confirming external validity for over 60 countries, a multidimensional construct is presented as a visual tool to compare cooperation across nations with repercussions for business and society at large.

Key words: Cooperation, World Values Surveys, Pro-sociality, Trust, Data Mapping

Word count: 11 548

Citation: Witte, Anne E. & M. Tensaout (2017). “Mapping the Cooperative Landscape: Spatializing an Intangible Social Capital Variable” World Values Research 9 (3): 1-34. 

WVR_09_03_Witte_&_Tensaout.pdf [Download count:150]

A puzzling paradox consists in the fact that large population segments in many countries confuse the absence of democracy with its presence. Significantly, these are also the countries where widespread support for democracy coexists with severe deficiencies in the latter, including its outright absence. Addressing this puzzle, we introduce a framework to sort out the extent to which populations over-estimate their countries' democraticness. We find that over-estimating democracy is a widespread phenomenon, although it varies systematically across countries. Out of a dozen possible influences, cognitive stimulation and moral emancipation—what we call "enlightenment forces"—provide the strongest anti-dote against over-estimating democracy. In fact, enlightenment forces not only reduce over-estimations of democracy; they actually drive people towards under-estimations, thus increasing criticality rather than accuracy in assessments. Hence, the enlightening effect is more normative than cognitive in nature. We conclude that—by elevating normative expectations—enlightenment forces release prodemocratic selection pressures in regime evolution.

Key words: authoritarianism - autocracy - democracy - enlightenment - legitimacy
Word count: 9581

Citation: Kruse, S., M. Ravlik & C. Welzel (2017). “The Legitimacy Puzzle: Why So Many People Confuse the Absence of Democracy with Its Presence.” World Values Research 9 (2): 1-30.

WVR_09_02_Kruse,_Ravlik_&_Welzel.pdf [Download count:94]

A puzzling paradox consists in the fact that widespread support for democracy coexists frequently with the very absence of the latter. Addressing this puzzle, we show that wherever it exists, most people misunderstand democracy in authoritarian ways that defy its emancipatory core. Such authoritarian notions of democracy (henceforth: ANDs) lend legitimacy to non-democratic regimes, which explains why they persist. Testing multiple explanations of ANDs, we find that cognitive mobilization and moral liberation—which we call "enlightenment forces"—provide the most powerful anti-dote against ANDs, stronger even than democratic traditions. Moreover, ANDs do not represent fearinduced false preferences but are real. Finally, ANDs provide a better indicator of authoritarianism more broadly speaking than is true for openly expressed preferences for authoritarian rule.

Key words: authoritarianism - authoritarian notions of democracy - cognitive mobilization - democracy - enlightenment forces - false preferences - moral liberation

Word count: 10,750 (excluding appendix)

Citation: Welzel, C. & H. Kirsch (2017). “Democracy Misunderstood: Authoritarian Notions of Democracy around the Globe.” World Values Research 9 (1): 1-29.

WVR_09_01_Welzel_&_Kirsch.pdf [Download count:161]

Dahlum and Knutsen (2015) claim to disprove the emancipatory theory of democracy proposed by Inglehart and Welzel. This theory posits that rising emancipative values are a major force driving the emergence and flourishing of democracies. Dahlum and Knutsen believe to falsify this claim by running panel regressions over a time-pooled cross-sectional database. Contrary to their claims, our re-analysis demonstrates that this type of regression analysis is inherently incapable to capture co-evolutionary dynamics that follow a "tectonic tension/eruption" model: rising emancipative values bring mass demands for democratic freedoms into a slowly growing tension with stagnant supplies of them, until a point is reached at which eruptive regime changes shift the supplies into equlibrium with the demands. We present fresh evidence showing that reality strongly conforms to this model, whose logic is beyond the comprehension of panel regressions. We conclude that the evidence supports the emancipatory theory of democracy as powerfully as it did in Inglehart and Welzel’s (2005) original analyses.

Key words: emancipative values, democratic freedoms, democratization.

Word count: 5,000 without Appendix (version accepted February 15th 2015)

 

WVR_08_01_Welzel_Inglehart_Kruse.pdf [Download count:625]

Inglehart and Welzel (2005) argue that modernization moves in two phases. The transition from agrarian to industrial society fosters a shift from ‘traditional to secular-rational values’, the transition from industrial to postindustrial society a shift from ‘survival to self-expression values’. We test for the first time the measurement model and the explanatory model of the theory in a multilevel framework. To obtain a reliable measure, four items and the assumption of orthogonal value dimensions need to be given up. Testing our new, reliable measure confirms the explanatory component of the theory. Based on the new dimensions, societies and their culture zones are aligned on the cultural map more clearly along a diagonal that reflects economic development; disturbances by culture zones appear much less pronounced.

Key words: cultural change, cultural map, revised theory of modernization, ML SEM

(multilevel structural equation modelling), values, value change

Word count: 8,020 (version accepted February 20th 2015).

WVR_08_02_Dulmer_Welzel_Inglehart.pdf [Download count:424]

Measures from standardized surveys are the main data source for cross-cultural research. Yet, a direct link between survey responses and individual behavior is rarely observed. We study the link between values and various forms of pro-social behavior. We invite the respondents of the sixth wave of the World Values Survey in Germany to participate in an online experiment. The experiment consists of a series of incentivized games and allows us to study the link between survey measured moral values and behavior. The evidence boils down to three findings. While emancipative values motivate higher common pool contributions (1) and higher donations to charitable organizations (2), secular values inspire more productive and less protective investments (3). We argue that incentivized behavioral experiments offer a promising complementary tool to measure cross-societal differences, with the distinct advantage that the underlying decision situation is defined by formal rules and payoff functions, which are independent of language and cultural context.

Key words: values; behavior; experiment; survey; equivalence, cooperation, prosocial behavior; property

Word count: 8,568 (version accepted September 10th 2015).

WVR_08_03_Kistler_Thoni_Welzel.pdf [Download count:540]

Many political culture researchers claim that democratic values are universal and worldwide democratization hence only a question of time. This universalist position has recently been challenged. Proponents of a pluralist position refer to cultural differences between civilizations and argue that some political values impede global democratization. Still other authors emphasize transcultural processes that lead to political hybridization rather than democratization by Western standards. These three positions have not yet been systematically confronted with empirical evidence. This article provides such an assessment of the current global pattern of political cultures. The (dis)similarities of up to 57 countries in terms of political values are mapped using data from the World Values Survey (2005-2008) and multidimensional scaling. The results show that while some democratic values do seem to be global phenomena, there is also evidence for regional variation and hybridity, especially regarding non-democratic values.

Key words: global map of political cultures, democratization, world culture, civilizations, hybridity.

Word count: 7,124 (version accepted August 16th 2015).

WVR_08_04_Schubert.pdf [Download count:333]

Structural equation modelers judge multi-item constructs against three requirements: (1) multiple items converge in a single dimension; (2) individual-level patterns of item convergence are invariant across countries; (3) aggregate-level patterns of item convergence replicate those at the individual level. This approach involves two premises: measurement validity hinges solely on a construct's internal convergence and convergence patterns at the individual level have priority over those at the aggregate level. We question both premises (a) because convergence patterns at the aggregate-level exist in their own right and (b) because only a construct's external linkages reveal its reality outreach. In support of these claims, we use the example of "emancipative values" to show that constructs can entirely lack convergence at the individual level and nevertheless exhibit powerful and important linkages at the aggregate level. Consequently, we advocate a paradigm shift from internal convergence towards external linkage as the prime criterion of validity.

Key words: equivalence, external linkage, internal convergence, validity.

Word count: 7,216 (version accepted October 1st 2015).

WVR_08_05_Welzel_Inglehart.pdf [Download count:263]