PAP1471 - Sociopolitical Values and the left-right divide across four continents

This study focus on the relationships between socio-political values and the Left-Right (LR) divide across 4 continents. Using data from the Comparative National Election Project III concerning 13 countries/elections from 4 continents, the paper analyses how well anchored in the socio-political value orientations that tap the most relevant political conflicts in the West since the XIX century individual LR self-placement is. Even previous studies that used world-wide surveys were not able to test the relationships between that “west European template” of values and the LR divide, simply because the batteries of values used in those other surveys relied in “highly personal orientations that are not necessarily relevant to politics”. Thus, here it is shown for the first time ever how well anchored in the “west European template” of values is individual LR self-placement across the countries/continents under scrutiny. Second, variation across countries is described and explained. The paper shows that values have an important and significant impact on the LR divide across the globe, but also that their importance is higher in Europe and the US than in other regions of the world. In a more systematic way, it shows that both politicization (“age of the democratic regime”, and “party system polarization”) and mass media “political intermediation” (freedom of press) have a significant role in explaining variation across countries.

André Freire
Assistant Professor with Agrégation / Professor Auxiliar com Agregação
Senior Researcher at CIES-IUL (Centre for Sociological Studies and Research),
Department of Political Science and Public Policies, ISCTE - IUL (Lisbon University Institute), Avenidas Forças Armadas,
1649-026 Lisboa, PORTUGAL, andre.freire@iscte.pt & andre.freire@meo.pt

Kats Kivistik
Phd Candidate (and Teaching Assistant) at the University of Tartu, Estonia,
Visiting Researcher at CIES-IUL (Centre for Sociological Studies and Research).»
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