Inside and outside perspectives on the relation of personal values and legal norm acceptances

Based on a representative survey on crime prevention, this paper studies how personal values are related to persons’ acceptance of legal norms (LNA). We here take a closer look at these relations than previous research. Offenses, in particular, are classified into three offense types (no victim (OT1), legal person as victim (OT2, real person as victim (OT3)), and the persons’ ratings are studied both as observed and as individually centered data. It is found that conservation-oriented persons give higher and less differentiated badness ratings for all offenses than persons striving for hedonism and stimulation. The correlational structure of basic personal values and norm acceptance ratings for 14 different offenses, when represented via multidimensional scaling, exhibits that conservation orientation becomes a better predictor of LNA of all offense types if it is augmented by an additional value, peace of mind. When looking at centered ratings (i.e., controlling for each person’s mean ratings), social values become the best predictors of OT2 offenses (tax evasion, benefits fraud, taking bribes). Statements on the impact of personal values on general norm acceptance should, therefore, be replaced with more differentiated relations on how particular values are related to peoples’ attitudes towards particular offenses.

Can women dynasty politicians disrupt social norms of political leadership? A proposed typology of normative change

Social norms that legitimise men as political leaders, and undervalue women’s leadership, are a tenacious barrier to women’s representation globally. This article explores the circumstances under which women dynasty politicians, whose legacy connections have provided them with an initial pathway into politics, are able to disrupt these norms. We test a proposed typology of normative change – one that progresses from norm acceptance, to norm modification, then norm resistance – among women dynasty politicians in the Pacific Islands. We find that norms of masculinised political leadership are strong, and in many cases the election of wives, widows, daughters and other relatives of male political actors reinforces these norms through their positioning as ‘placeholders’. Yet some women dynasty politicians can, and do, challenge and extend social norms of leadership. This is especially the case when the ‘legacy advantage’ is a springboard from which women demonstrate – and their publics accept – their own articulation of political leadership.

Does the Economic Decline of the West and the Rise of China Encourage NGO Crackdown?

Laws restricting foreign funding to domestically operating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have proliferated in developing countries. This is puzzling because Western powers support the norm that NGOs are critical for democracy and development, recommend governments partner with NGOs, and sometimes use trade sanctions to encourage adherence to this norm. We examine whether rising trade with China influences the onset of NGO restrictions. China, which has emerged as an important export destination, articulates a different norm of state sovereignty over NGOs and does not sanction developing countries that enact restrictive NGO laws. Analysis of 153 developing countries from 2000 to 2015 finds that increasing exports to China may double the risk of NGO crackdown, but only when accompanied by declining exports to Western democracies. NGO scholars should recognize there are multiple norms about state-NGO relationship and that norm acceptance is influenced by the economic clout of the power that espouses a particular norm.

Utilizing personal values to explain people’s attitudes towards legal norms

The aim of this study is to clarify whether personal values explain delinquents’ and non-delinquents’ general attitudes towards legal norms. We expect that 10 basic personal values form a circular scale common to all individuals, both delinquents and non-delinquents, that people’s ratings of the importance of these 10 values predict their norm acceptance in a sinusoidal way, with higher predictability for delinquents, and that the correlations of personal values with norm acceptance are highest for those delinquents with a broad spectrum of offences. Finally, we expect that gender does not have an impact on these profiles, whereas controlling for age does. Our analyses are based on four studies on community crime prevention. The results are in line with the above expectations.

Development of a Future Orientation Model in Emerging Adulthood in Hungary

Social and economic sustainability of countries globally largely depend on how well educational structures are capable of empowering future generations with skills and competencies to become autonomous and active citizens. Such competency is future planning, which is vital in the identity formation of youth in their developmental phase of emerging adulthood. The article below attempts to elaborate a predictive model of future orientation based on current and future norms, future interest and concern. The model was tested on a sample population of business school students (N=217) in their emerging adulthood. Norm acceptance ranking proved to be different for present and future times. Amongst a number of contextual variables shaping the formation of future plans concern has been found to hold the strongest predictive power.

Development of an Individualism-Collectivism Scale Revisited: A Korean Sample

A 13-item Individualism-Collectivism scale comprising source of identity, goal priority, mode of social relation, and norm acceptance is presented. A validation of this scale was conducted using a survey of 773 Korean employees. An exploratory factor analysis and a second-order confirmatory factor analysis supported the measure as having theoretical face validity and acceptable internal consistency reliability. Among the four facets, goal priority most strongly predicted the general Individualism-Collectivism latent factor.