World Values Survey (From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Values_Survey)
The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research project that explores people's values and beliefs, how they change over time and what social and political impact they have. It is carried out by a worldwide network of social scientists who, since 1981, have conducted representative national surveys in almost 100 countries. The findings provide information for policy makers seeking to build civil society and democratic institutions in developing countries. The work is also frequently used by governments around the world, scholars, students, journalists and international organizations and institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations (UNDP and UN-Habitat).
The WVS has over the years demonstrated that people's beliefs play a key role in economic development, the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions, the rise of gender equality, and the extent to which societies have effective government.
The Inglehart–Welzel cultural map shown above asserts that there are two major dimensions of cross cultural variation in the world:
- Traditional values versus Secular-rational values and
- Survival values versus Self-expression values.
Here the vertical axis represents the influence of traditional values in a society. Thus China, S.Korea, Japan and Taiwan have broken away from tradition and are in some aspects more Western than the West itself. On the other hand the Islamic countries are at the bottom refusing to budge from traditions and resorting even to violence in the face of change.
The horizontal axis represents Survival values versus Self-expression values. Here China and the other Confucian societies fall behind even South American countries when it comes to freedom of expression and other democratic values.
From the diagram it is clear that the Scandinavian countries, Germany and Switzerland have maximum scope for self-expression which results in scant respect for traditions. No wonder these countries provide the best environment for a happy human existence.
In contrast the Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Arab nations provide minimum or no scope for self-expression giving rise to oppressive regimes and endless bloodshed.
Let us now look at our own beloved India. According to the diagram we are still deep-rooted in tradition and traditional values compared to China. But we have more freedom of expression. This is probably most evident in our sexual mores where in spite of the constitutional equality for the sexes there is still a lot of sex-based discrimination and exploitation. It is also obvious that we have a long long way to go before we catch up with the Scandinavian nations who offer the ideal conditions for progress and development.
It may also be pertinent to note that the above diagram is built on statistical averages. However there will indeed be deviations from the mean in every society. Thus though Germany is clubbed with Scandinavia in the survey values, there are neo-Nazis there who are more like the Islamic societies who believe in violence. Similarly there is the Ku Klux Klan in the US who though they may be dressed in modern attire, are very primitive in outlook.
We in India also have our version of the neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan who though they wear modern suits and talk modern jargon are in reality as reactionary as the Neo-Nazis or the KKK or the Islamic fundamentalists. The fact that these reactionaries in India have considerable political clout compared to the Neo-Nazis and/or the KKK is a highly worrisome factor as they can drag us down to the club of Islamic nations with too much tradition and too little freedom.
Posted by: Xavier William <varekatx@gmail.com>
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