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
Socialist-Laissez-Faire Items
The Libertarian-Authoritarian 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