Join us for the WVS webinar on July 15, where WVSA Vice-President Prof. Dr. Christian Welzel of Leuphana University Lüneburg will discuss the resilience of autocratic regimes in the face of modernization. Drawing on data from a multilevel moderation study, the presentation examines how authoritarian systems attempt to block the psychological effects of development, yet ultimately fail to suppress the rise of emancipatory values. These findings offer new insights into the internal contradictions of modernizing autocracies and their growing vulnerability over time.

Join us for the WVS webinar on June 27, where our guest speaker, Amy Adamczyk from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, explores global public opinion on abortion. The analysis across 88 countries shows that national context—particularly religious importance, economic development, and gender inequality—plays a key role in shaping abortion attitudes beyond individual-level factors. The presentation highlights how support for abortion varies globally, with notable trends such as declining justification in China despite growing tolerance for other moral issues. These findings offer insights into how public opinion on abortion is shaped by broader cultural and political forces across societies.

The WVSA is delighted to present this year’s Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture award to Robert Mattes, Professor of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde, UK. A leading expert on democratic attitudes, Robert Mattes spoke on “Anti-Democratic Parties and Popular Support for Democracy.” The lecture examined how such parties shape citizens’ views on democratic governance.

Join us for the WVS webinar on June 18, where our guest speaker, Francesco Rigoli from City St Georges, University of London, examines ideological extremism and polarization on a global scale, across the different countries of the world. He identifies how certain national characteristics, such as levels of modernization, influence the degree of polarization in various domains like economics, gender equality, and immigration. The findings reveal that polarization is often higher in less modernized countries, though in some issues, more modernized societies show deeper divides.

Join us for the WVS webinar on April 25, where our guest speakers, Jan Aart Scholte from Leiden University and Soetkin Verhaegen from Maastricht University, will explore the elite-citizen gap in confidence toward international organizations using data from the World Values Survey and a parallel elite survey. Their analysis across five countries shows that elites express significantly higher confidence than the general public, with individual-level factors such as socioeconomic status, political values, and institutional trust helping to explain this gap. The presentation offers insights into how legitimacy is perceived differently across societal groups and what this means for the future of global governance.