Value Diversity and Social Cohesion

Abstract

This chapter uses WVS data to test the four perspectives on value diversity that are outlined below.¹⁵ Our starting point is the surprisingly high level of value diversity in the social market and transition groups of countries by comparison to the liberal states (see Chapter 5). Current theory on cultural continuities is unable to account for this pattern. This body of theory would expect liberal states to show the highest level of cultural pluralism because of individualism, the self-proclaimed toleration of diversity in these countries and the reluctance of their governments to intervene in cultural affairs and foster a particular set of norms and values through the education system or other agents of socialization. Value diversity should be lower in the social market and transition countries due to a more collectivist culture rooted in the republican tradition or in the romantic conservative conception of the nation as a community defined by descent, language and common values. Moreover, immigration levels could not account for the cross-national variation in value diversity either as we found no relation between the proportion of immigrants in the population and a country’s degree of value diversity (see Figure 5.11).