Anti-Corruption Protests and University Students: Evidence from Russian Cities

There are conflicting theoretical expectations regarding students' protest behaviour in contemporary autocracies. On the one hand, in line with a resource model of political participation, university students are more likely to protest than their peers without higher education. On the other hand, university students in autocracies might refrain from high-risk activism in exchange for their own financial well-being and career advancement. To address this debate, the article leverages data on anti-corruption protests organized by the opposition politician Alexei Navalny in March 2017. Results show that anti-corruption protests were larger in Russian cities with a larger university student population. Next, employing individual-level data from the fifth wave of the European Values Survey, multinomial logistic regression analysis demonstrates that university students participated in demonstrations at a higher rate than non-students of the same age. More broadly, these findings yield insights into subnational variation in mass mobilization in a repressive political regime.

Threat to National Community?

This is the first of two chapters examining the relationship between authoritarianism and attitudes towards the EU. After explaining why existing utilitarian, cultural, and political explanations fail to explain fully the present structure of EU attitudes, the chapter presents the argument that the roots of this polarization over EU attitudes can be found in authoritarianism. The expanded institutional powers and membership of the EU pose a threat to national sovereignty and community. EU institutions have greater capacity to enforce policy upon member states, and the broader membership of the EU opens the borders of member states to a wider population. High authoritarians find these developments threatening and oppose the EU, while low authoritarians view the EU as increasing individual autonomy and social diversity. The analysis compiles data from the European Values Survey and national election studies from several countries. The results show that high authoritarians are less likely to support European integration, to trust the EU, or to support enlargement of the EU’s membership. This relationship holds when measures of social identity are included in this analysis, due in part to the effect of authoritarianism on social identity attitudes. Furthermore, evidence from an original survey conducted in Germany shows that high authoritarians are more likely to believe that the EU threatens Germany’s culture and laws.

Are Religiosity and Spirituality Related to Self-Reported Health Expectancy? An Analysis of the European Values Survey

Research on religiosity and health has generally focussed on the United States, and outcomes of health or mortality but not both. Using the European Values Survey 2008, we examined cross-sectional associations between four dimensions of religiosity/spirituality: attendance, private prayer, importance of religion, belief in God; and healthy life expectancy (HLE) based on self-reported health across 47 European countries (n = 65,303 individuals). Greater levels of private prayer, importance of religion and belief in God, at a country level, were associated with lower HLE at age 20, after adjustment for confounders, but only in women. The findings may explain HLE inequalities between European countries.

Is tax morale culturally driven?

Citizens' tax compliance should not only respond to the quality of formal institutions, but might also be culturally driven. We contribute to this literature by investigating whether tax morale, an individual's intrinsic non-pecuniary motivation to comply with taxes, is associated with the cultural values (following Hofstede's typology) held by this individual. The analysis exploits four waves of the European Values Survey (1981–2010) across 48 countries. The cultural dimensions are constructed through a polychoric principal component analysis on a set of relevant survey items consistent with Hofstede's definitions. Ordered logit estimations suggest that although values of individualism and femininity are associated with higher individual's tax morale, power distance and uncertainty avoidance are associated with lower tax morale. These results remain consistent as we increase the level of granularity of our investigation through within-region analyses and, subsequently, within-cohort analyses. We argue that these results inevitably enrich the emerging debate about cultural values and citizens' compliance with formal institutions. They also indicate that societal culture as well as individual values should be considered when designing policies aiming to improve tax compliance.

National identity between democracy and autocracy: a comparative analysis of 24 countries

Recognizing democratic backsliding and increasing support for authoritarianism, research on public preferences for democracy and its authoritarian alternatives has gained traction. Moving beyond the extant focus on economic determinants, our analysis examines the effect of national identity, demonstrating that it is a double-edged sword for regime preferences. Using recent European Values Survey data on 24 European countries from 2017 to 2018, we show that civic national identity is associated with a higher support for democracy and lower support for authoritarian regimes, whereas the reverse holds for ethnic identities. Further, economic hardship moderates these relationships: it strengthens both the negative effect of ethnic national identities and, to some extent, the positive effect of civic national identities on democracy support vis-à-vis authoritarian alternatives. This has important implications for the survival of democracy in times of crises and the study of a cultural backlash, since social identity matters substantively for individuals’ responses to economic hardship.

كتاب التطور الثقافي: تغير دوافع الشعوب وإعادة تشكيل العالم Book :Cultural Development: Changing peoples' motivations and reshaping the world

يعرف هذا الكتاب القارئ بنظرية التحديث التطورية Evolutionary Modernization Theory لرونالد إنجلهارت التي تنبثق عنها مجموعة من الفروض يقوم صاحب النظرية باختبارها مستخدماً قاعدة بيانات ميدانية فريدة من نوعها تم جمعها من مسح القيم العالمي World Values Survey ومسح القيم الأوربية European Values Survey ما بين عامي 1981 و 2014. ويُعد هذا الكتاب امتداداً للفكر الاجتماعي-السياسي والفكر الاقتصادي-التنموي الذي ظهر بعد الحرب العالمية الثانية متمثلاً في نظريات التحديث والتغير الثقافي، ويتبنى المؤلف النظرة الكونية لخريطة العالم الثقافية ويبرز أولوية المتغير الثقافي على وجه التحديد. و تم تصميم هذا الكتاب على نحو يساعد القارئ على تفهم كيف تتغير قيم الناس وأهدافهم، وكيف يؤدي ذلك إلى تغيير العالم. This book is known as Ronald Engelhart’s Evolutionary Modernization Theory, which gives rise to a set of hypotheses that the theory owner tests using a unique field database collected from the World Values ​​Survey and the European Values ​​Survey between 1981 and 2014. This book is an extension of the socio-political and economic-developmental ideas that emerged after the Second World War represented in theories of modernization and cultural change, and the author adopts the global view of the cultural map of the world and highlights the priority of the cultural variable specifically. This book is designed to help the reader understand how people’s values ​​and goals change, and how this changes the world

Valores de los estudiantes universitarios de Madeira y Fortaleza: dimensión familiar

Esta é uma pesquisa quantitativa que tem como objetivo analisar os valores de família de estudantes universitários portugueses e brasileiros. Pesquisou-se 605 universitários, sendo 225 da Universidade da Madeira (Portugal) e 380 da Universidade de Fortaleza (Brasil). Utilizou-se a dimensão família do Questionário adaptado do European Values Survey, englobando questões sobre atitudes dos progenitores, número de filhos e qualidades a ensinar às crianças/jovens. A maioria dos participantes eram do sexo feminino e solteiros, apresentando os estudantes brasileiros scores mais elevados em relação às atitudes antiquadas dos pais acerca dos princípios morais e ao número de filhos, atribuindo importância às qualidades coragem, responsabilidade, respeito, perseverança, fé, generosidade, enquanto os portugueses outorgam maior importância à economia. Os resultados permitem inferir que as crenças, os valores e as qualidades dos jovens espelham a família, a sociedade envolvente e o mundo globalizado.

Changes in the Concept of Lithuanian Identity in Public Consciousness in 2008–2017

What is the prevailing concept of Lithuanian identity and the importance of different criteria used to define it? How do they fit in with the newly constructed European identity? Based on the data of the European Values Survey, the article analyzes the dominant notion of Lithuanian identity in our society, the importance of criteria used to define it, and the dynamics of evaluations of the importance of these criteria in the period from 2008 to 2017, revealing essential sociodemographic and other differentiation factors. The problem of the complex interrelationship between a Lithuanian and European identity is also examined, denying the myths of their inevitable contradiction.

Alternatives to Aging Alone?: “Kinlessness” and the Importance of Friends Across European Contexts

Objectives Increasing numbers of older adults cross-nationally are without children or partners in later life and therefore likely have greater reliance on nonkin (e.g., friends). This pattern may be particularly pronounced in country contexts that emphasize friendship. This article hypothesizes that those who lack kin (e.g., children, partners) and/or who live in countries with a stronger emphasis on friendship have more friends in their networks. Although these hypothesized patterns are consistent with interdisciplinary literatures, they have not been tested empirically and therefore remain overlooked in current “aging alone” narratives. Method This study combines individual-level data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (Wave 6) with nation-level data from the European Values Survey to estimate multilevel negative binomial models exploring number of friends among those aged more than 50 years who lack kin across 17 countries. Results Older adults who lack kin or whose kin are unavailable report more friends in their networks, particularly in countries with a higher percentage of people who believe that friends are “very important” in life. Discussion This article challenges dominating assumptions about “aging alone” that rely heavily on lack of family as an indicator of “alone.” Future studies of “kinlessness” should consider the extent to which friendship is correlated with lack of kin, particularly in more socioeconomically developed countries. Previous research on “aging alone” may have overestimated risk in more privileged countries that already emphasize friendship, but underestimated risk in family-centered countries where “kinlessness” and alternative sources of support are less common.