The moderating role of democratic governance in the association between personal values and political ideologies

This analysis examined whether commonly assumed associations between personal values and political attitudes within countries varied worldwide by the level of democratic governance. In less democratic countries, people may have less exposure to or engagement with value expression through political party affiliation and experience less motivation to express values through political attitudes. Therefore, in such countries, the commonly assumed association of personal values typically labeled “conservative” (e.g., tradition) or “liberal” (e.g., universalism) with right- or left-wing political ideologies could be weaker. Furthermore, less democratic governments are more likely to be perceived as a deciding presence in economic outcomes than the people's or the market's will, which could alter the degree to which right-wing economic attitudes toward free markets and private enterprise are associated with conservative values. Responses to the World Value Survey across 60 countries were largely consistent with these moderation effects when operationalizing democratic governance using both more objective, structural, and subjective, perceptual metrics. In less democratic countries, conservation-oriented personal values were less positively associated with broad right-wing political identification and self-transcendence-oriented values less positively associated with broad left-wing political identification. In less democratic countries, conservation-oriented values were more negatively associated with right-wing economic attitudes.