DEVELOPMENT

1.5
Values
Anu Realo
The attention of many cultural researchers has been
engaged, for several decades, by values that express
cultural ideals and shared understandings about what
is good and what is bad. Values are seen as a central
theme or axis of culture around which shared beliefs,
symbols, norms, and practices are centered, allowing
us to compare different cultures (Hofstede 1980, 2001;
Inglehart 1997, 2006; Schwartz 1994, 2004). Cultural
values shape and justify individual and group beliefs,
habits, goals and actions. Everyday practices and institutional
functioning, in turn, reflect important cultural
values. The dominant value orientations in the culture
develop and change when societies are faced with
fundamental problems or issues that regulate human
activity (Schwartz 2004).This chapter will examine the
development of values in Estonia during the last twenty
years. The chapter is based mostly on the value theory
of Ronald Inglehart and his colleagues (Inglehart
1997, 2006; Inglehart & Baker 2000; Inglehart & Welzel
2005). Also included are the results of the World
Values Survey (WVS), which is presumably the world’s
largest survey of attitudes, values and beliefs (Inglehart
& Baker 2000). In cooperation with the European
Values Survey (EVS), which was started in 1981, the
project involves approximately 90 countries, and uses
nationally representative samples for its research. The
new wave of surveys for the World Values Survey is
currently underway, and data was collected in Estonia
in the autumn of 2011. This data provides a good
opportunity to analyse whether and how much Estonia’s
position on the “cultural map of the world” has
changed during the last 20 years.
1.5.1
The Inglehart and Welzel’s dimensions
of cultural values
Based on Inglehart and Welzel’s (Ing lehart 1997, 2006;
Inglehart & Welzel 2005) approach, one can speak about
two large value dimensions: (1) traditional versus secular-rational,
which contrasts the religious and traditional
values typical of agrarian societies with the secular and
rational values, which mainly predominate in urbanised
and industrialised societies, and (2) survival versus
self-expression, which reflects the shift from an emphasis
on economic and physical security to the appreciation of
self-expression, subjective well-being and the quality of
life. These two dimensions make it possible to describe
most of the cultural differences in value preferences
(see Figure 1.5.1).
The values dimension that contrasts traditional
and secular-rational values reflects the “the contrast
between societies in which religion is very important
and those in which it is not” (p. 25); at the same time,
obedience to authority – be it God, a government
leader or head of a family – are all very closely related
(Inglehart & Baker 2000). In societies that stress traditional
values, religion plays an important role; people
consider strong ties between children and parents to
be important; as well as obedience to authority. In
societies that stress traditional values, things that are
viewed as “social anomalies,” such as divorce, abortion,
suicide and euthanasia, are disapproved. In societies
that emphasize secular-rational values, religion and
religious authority is less important; instead, people
consider their personal aspirations more important
than social conformity. They have a rational belief
in the progress of science and technology, and in an
individual right to make important decisions regarding
their own lives (incl. euthanasia, suicide, divorce and
abortion) (Inglehart & Welzel 2005).
In those societies where values related to selfexpression
dominate, people have a better self-reported
health; they also take more responsibility for their
actions, are politically active, tolerant of differences, and
knowledgeable and enthusiastic about issues related
to nature conservation (Inglehart & Baker 2000). The
peoples that stress self-expression are more sensitive
about human rights issues, aware of technology-related
dangers and risks, and more attentive when it comes
to the discrimination of minorities. Societies where
values related to survival predominate are characterised
by a sense of low economic and physical security, and
the prioritisation of material values. People that live in
societies that stress survival do not trust each other, are
not satisfied with life and do not tolerate having people
who are different (e.g. foreigners, or people with different
sexual orientations) around them. In these societies,
people consider their own health to be relatively poor,
and do not think that issues related to gender equality,
nature conservation or sustainable living are important
(Inglehart & Oyserman 2004).
The aforementioned dimensions of cultural values
have been confirmed empirically by the research of
Inglehart and his colleagues (Inglehart 1997; Inglehart
& Baker 2000), which summarises the data collected
in the course of the fourth wave of the World Values
Survey, based on 200 samples from 78 countries. If
Inglehart (1997) initially computed the factor scores for
the values dimensions based on 22 items, later analyses
showed that ten indicators are sufficient (see Table 1.5.1)
to describe the most important cultural differences in
people’s value preferences (Inglehart & Baker 2000).
The two values dimensions explain a total of 71% of
the crossnational variation and enable the positions of
every society to be charted on a global map showing
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Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013