The Role of Values GV917

Core Beliefs and Values The US research suggests that there are fundamental values underlying American public opinion For example, Feldman (1988) argues that there is a belief in equality of opportunity and in free enterprise These are not ideologies since the core values are only rather weakly related to each other – they are rather distinct and sometimes competing moral principles – values are essentially normative Are there similar beliefs in Britain?

Political Values in Britain Heath et al (1994) explore the extent to which there are two broad value scales underlying public opinion in Britain They explored this question using data from the British Social Attitudes surveys of 1989 and 1990 The first related to socialism/laissez-faire values The second related to libertarian/authoritarian values They investigated the stability of these values over two waves of the BSAS surveys

Socialism/Laissez-Faire and Liberal/Authoritarian They started with 17 separate Likert Scales (1 strongly agree; 2 agree; 3 neither; 4 disagree; 5 strongly disagree) for the Socialism/Laissez-Faire scale and 16 for the Liberal/Authoritarian Scale The conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the items which allowed them to identify which indicators were most closely related to each other and eliminate unrelated ones

The Socialist-Laissez-Faire items ‘Ordinary people get their fair share of the nations wealth’ ‘There is one law for the rich and one for the poor’ ‘There is no need for strong trade unions to protect employee’s working conditions and wages’ ‘It is government’s responsibility to provide a job for everyone who wants one’ ‘Private enterprise is the best way to solve Britain’s economic problems’ ‘Major public services and industries ought to be in state ownership’

The Libertarian-Authoritarian Items ‘Young people today do not have enough respect for traditional British values’ ‘Censorship of films and magazines is necessary to uphold moral standards’ ‘People in Britain should be more tolerant of those who lead unconventional lives’ ‘People should be allowed to organize public meetings to protest against the government’ ‘Even political parties that wish to overthrow democracy should not be banned’

Replication of the Study in 2005 The British Election Study survey of 2005 carried the most important eight of these twelve items (as measured by their statistical association) to see if the scales from 1989/90 could be replicated in a later survey It was also interesting to see how these scales related to social backgrounds and attitudinal variables

Socialist-Laissez-Faire Items

The Libertarian-Authoritarian Items

Correlations between Socialism/Laissez Faire Items

Correlations between Libertarian/Authoritarian Items

Factor Structure

Meaning of the Factor Structures First Factor – Redistribution and Fairness (a high score means that someone disagrees that ordinary people get a fair share and agrees that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor) A positive score means that the individual thinks society is unfair Second Factor – Authoritarianism (a high score means that someone disagrees that young people do not show respect and disagrees with censorship). A negative score means that someone is authoritarian Third Factor – Tolerance (a high score means someone disagrees with allowing protest meetings and that people should be more tolerant of unconventional lifestyles). A positive score means that someone is intolerant.

The Redistribution and Fairness Factor (A positive score denotes a perception of unfairness in society and a negative score means perceptions that it is fair)

Authoritarianism Factor (A positive score means that someone is not authoritarian and a negative score means that they are)

Tolerance Factor (A positive score means that someone is intolerant and a negative score means that they are tolerant)

Redistribution and Fairness and Occupational Status – (High status individuals are more likely to think that society is fair )

Redistribution and Fairness and Age (The youngest and the oldest a re more likely to think that society is fair)

Redistribution and Fairness and Age Leaving Full-Time Education (highly educated people are more likely to think that society is fair)

Redistribution and Fairness and Partisanship ( Conservatives disagree while Labour partisans tend to agree that society is unfair)

Redistribution and the Left-Right Ideology Scale (Left-wingers agree and right-wingers disagree that society is unfair)

Conclusions There is evidence of a set of underlying values in public attitudes These values correlate with social characteristics in predictable ways (eg high status people think things are fair, and low status people think the opposite) The relationship between values and political variables such as partisanship and ideology are particularly significant – values influence politics