Access to the value range of the universe.
The expansion of the picture of the universe, the opening of the field of possibilities, the creation of manifested creations - all this happens, is born at once.
There are points at which transitions are made and there is an increase in the possibilities of merging with the spaces of perfection. Today is one of those days that can activate and start a new, more perfect coil of conscious reality, if you choose and step into IT.
THIS does not apply to those human preferences that divide into “good and bad”, make choices “pain or joy”, “black or white”.
THIS is a harmonious flow and balance in the higher spheres of creation, access to which always exists behind the scenes, but can also go into a conscious channel.
THESE are other accents of the flow of harmony, where there is no difference and human aspects.
Coming into contact with these dimensions at such a time consciously, you are able to switch from what you knew, who you were, how you used to feel and identify yourself, to another, more expanded state. We can say that THIS is the sublime, expanded space of the universe, in which there is a manifestation of creation.
Each of you may think that he knows something, has achieved, comprehended in this life (this may indeed be so). Compared to what you carry in your potential, this is quite a bit, perhaps even the smallest drop. But any drop of frequency that is made up of realizations and achievements is important - it dilutes everything else.
Sometimes you get carried away by following someone's call. It seems to you that this is your own call, and you take one of the illusions and start playing with it in a greater or lesser aspect, key. Then it becomes part of your space. When you take all of it, it dissolves and disappears.
Everything that appears in your field of vision deserves your attention - especially what you want to reject, what you want to give up. Behind the external that attracts or repels, lies something else - something that is part of yourself, what you strive for.
When you aspire to something, as it seems to you, "light" and start from something "dark", it may turn out that, starting from the "dark", you start from the light that stands behind it. It’s just that “dark” is that buffer, like a microexam, which is important to pass in order to achieve what you aspire to.
Microexaminations are a test for the degree of maturity, for strength - the Universe always suits her. This is a way to show what you need, that it is of value to you.
About value in this world.
They are now narrowed down to values in various directions. The value of material wealth is especially manifested. No matter how a person in individual consciousness is disconnected from this value, he, in any case, will be dependent, fed on this value. Why? Because it is that narrow component of the big whole, which leads to the value range of the Universe.
Very often, many people make the mistake of being pushed by theories that something is not necessary or important to them. Disconnecting from anything, at the moment - from the value component, which in some aspects is hypertrophied and distorted, but in others is a guide to the deep value of what is the connection with the Universe.
There are values of the Universe. They are, as it were, in the core of a ball, a sphere. On the periphery there is a point of material values. Many people fall on this point and stay in its areola without moving any further. Others cover a little more, capturing the value of the family, the value of memory, knowledge, skills and abilities.
The value of the Universe is much greater - it is the value of comprehending what is beyond deciphering, the possibility of deciphering this state into words and phrases.
As soon as there is indignation with something or someone, there is a distance from the value of the Universe. It is indignation that casts one away from itself and from its value.
You can feel your value as the value of all those around you and everything around you. Self-worth is what shows whether the person next to you is valuable to you or not. If you lose respect for him, if you lose the vision of what is significant in him, this is a sign to this being that it disappears, separates from its deepest value, loses its connection with the Universe.
At such moments, the value of the material grows, the value of owning something and one's own stability, and a substitution occurs. This substitution can become fraught when it occupies an interior space that does not belong to it. At first, only one part belongs to the substitution, one point, but gradually, when a person devalues what comes from others or from another, discards, devalues, refuses, something else takes the place of depreciation - what he possesses in the dense world.
Thus, a person overlays himself brick by brick in his field, in his space with static and stability. It seems to him that his strength is growing, but at some point this strength begins to be his burden, because this burden must be fed with his own life force energy.
This is exactly how much is arranged in the social world today in order for people to experience overload, illness, so that their lifespan is shortened.
Everyone can influence this situation very simple: when he can see value in another person, when he can transform what was static bricks into flow, and thus connect his connection with the value of the Universe.
What does the value of the Universe mean?
This is the core of its connection with the General. When you reach it, there is an comprehension of merging with the universal, integral Consciousness. Then the reverse process occurs for you, when the integral Consciousness, that value of the Universe, begins to nourish you and flows, fills all those micro-capacities of value that are in your field: in your unconscious, in your consciousness, in your many levels.
It fills those voids that were formed in childhood, in previous incarnations, formed where you cannot restore your connection with yourself, where you cannot use your knowledge and your skills, where what you feel does not work should work.
Then completely different laws are activated, when it is not necessary to forcibly build automatic chains. You simply begin to direct your attention, and a valuable stream flows in that direction. And since it correlates with the Universe, and in itself there is the very value that forms the grain, then everything accumulates, is structured, formed and created.
Earlier we talked about the ether field. Now this ether field is also being extended, but from a more capacious state - from the Universe, from the state of using its core, its valuable filler.
This Knowledge and the ability to perceive this Knowledge is not for everyone, because it is put into words and is not easy enough for human awareness to perceive. In addition to words, there is also energy that flows at a certain time of the open portal.
If there is no perception at the conceptual level, but there is an internal feedback that “there is something in it” for you, that “there is some kind of grain”, and you can admit the existence of something that is now undecipherable, incomprehensible or inaccessible, then simply allow this unknown, but valuable, which fills the Universe, to activate, integrate and create your own connection. It is the connection of the individual, which once separated and went into the choices of duality, with the universal One, which is ready, willing and eager to manifest itself through the individual in the most perfect way.
This most perfect way can be bestowed upon you.
At the same time, there is not a single moment that you have lived in vain. There is not a single moment of your interactions, choices, your situations that was, is or will be imperfect and less suitable for you.
What is is a greater degree of awareness or intelligence of the individual being. By being intelligent, you are flipping and creating a greater ability to include yourself in general processes Universe. You are not just flowing like a blade of grass in a stream of water, but you are able to participate, you are able to interact with your consciousness and transmit your desires and perceptions, as well as to hear the desires, perceptions, opportunities and values of the world around you and participate.
Once again, value always comes from value. You see the value of who is with you, what is around you. Seeing this value, you connect, merge, flow and create opportunity.
The world is infinitely diverse.
There are many layers and sub-worlds in the world that contain different forms life, different degrees of the situation.
Many of you, finding yourself in some seemingly illusory situations, simply dive into certain worlds. In these worlds, through illusion (through a dream, fantasy, representation), one lives oneself as another. It may not be known, due to the fact that in this incarnation it is not revealed to them.
There are those who have a greater ability to expand, stretch. These are the ones who need it. Others are less capable of stretching. They follow their direction and tasks clearly. All these are just different spectrums of life, different spectra of perception.
You can not be disappointed and not offended by those who do not perceive you as you are, who are not able to hear your values, who are not able to perceive the world that is reality for you. Just give him the opportunity to see him, this being, as valuable - so and with what he is.
This way you will begin to get closer and closer to your values.
As for material values, this is the very first step on the way to yourself, to your highest values, which can be treated with respect and attention, understanding that this is not something you need to stop and focus on, attaching to it, but something that gives you the opportunity to conduct and follow further in order to reveal yourself more.
The state of gratitude for the values of any plane also opens up the possibility of further movement on the path.
Often cataclysms with the values of the material world can be something that a person is very attached to and cherishes them. He begins to translate the values of the material world from an instrument into goals and achievements, and then these values in themselves, their consciousness tries to shake the human being so that he takes the right, right position.
There is no pride in the fact that you have accumulated more material values. They don't belong to you. They are given to you as a tool so that you can properly distribute them in the range and in those environments that are with you, and not in order to crush, hide and accumulate for yourself.
When someone accumulates and tries to hold on, seeing everyone else and the world as a threat, then his other plans and other levels begin to collapse, because he steps on the value layer of himself in the highest range.
A person does not directly connect attachment to material values and p
As a result of the collapse of the USSR, some people formed new views, the system of values changed radically. In the same way, many Russians took a fresh look at the value system in Lately, especially because of the crisis around the Ukrainian events.
All people are different, therefore, the whole society does not and cannot have a single, standard system of values. Nevertheless, the results of sociological surveys conducted among various groups of the population allow us to draw certain conclusions.
The majority of Russians surveyed consider good health, well-being in family life, material security, achieving success, the opportunity to make a career. Very important, albeit less significant values for some citizens of Russia are: personal security, as well as the safety of relatives and friends, a prosperous state of the environment, the possibility of free movement around the world, free communication and discussion of any topic (including on the Internet) .
What values have changed recently
Some Russians, until recently, had a high opinion of the Western way of life, considering it a role model. Many young citizens of Russia (high school students, students) dreamed of living in the USA, Canada or one of the countries of Western Europe. However, due to the events taking place in Ukraine, and the reaction of the West to them, the mood of the majority of Russians has changed radically. Belief in so-called "Western values" - freedom of speech, independence of the press, human rights, etc. turned out to be severely damaged.
In addition, Russians have experienced a surge of patriotism due to the return of Crimea to Russia, as well as due to the firm position of Russia on the world stage, not yielding to pressure from the West. If relatively recently patriotism was not among the priorities of Russian citizens, especially young ones, now it has firmly taken its place among the most important basic values.
Compared to the crazy nineties, the cult of money, success at any cost, has significantly decreased, “ strong personality”, achieving the intended goal even with the use of unworthy means. In addition, polls show that the institution of civil marriage has become less popular. People, although still recognizing his right to exist, consider formal marriage relations to be more preferable.
While the core values are relatively constant, in general public values are continuously changing. Marketers should pay special attention to "transitional" values that affect all areas of the market. Changes that took place in the 1990s (see Table 11.1) are an example of a paradigm shift or a fundamental reordering of how consumers and marketers think about the world around them.26 These changes laid the foundations for the current market environment. Perhaps looking at the right column of Table. 11.1, you will want to think about how values will change in the next few decades and what impact this will have on the decisions you will make as a consumer or manager.
The change in social values can be predicted based on the concepts life cycle A: Human values change with age. Consequently, young people, having some of their own, inherent only to them, values, in a few decades will change their guidelines, and the social values of the future will not differ from today's ones, since young people, getting older, learn the values of their parents (the main provision of the theory of behavioral assimilation). In contrast, the gradual replacement of existing values is explained by the change of generations: young people, who currently represent the “leading” generation, introduce their own values. As they grow older, they retain the values of their youth that replace the social attitudes of older consumers.27 Which of these theories do you think is more true? Will your views on life remain the same in 30 years or will you think like your parents? Your answer will depend on the extent to which your values in life have been influenced by the cultural triad (family, religion, and school) and past life experiences. The degree of persuasiveness of communications will depend on the values that, contrary to opinion about their relative stability and ties to cultural norms and traditions are indeed flexible and more driven by your own personality traits.28
Table 11.1. Western civilization: changing values
| Traditional values | New values |
| The moral of self-denial | The moral of self-realization |
| High earnings | High quality of life |
| Traditional sexual roles | Blurring the boundaries of sexual roles |
| Common definition of success | Individual understanding of success |
| traditional life families | Alternative family models |
| Belief in industrial progress, social | belief own forces |
| institutions | |
| Live to work | Work to live |
| Hero Worship | Fascination with ideas |
| Expansionism | Pluralism |
| Patriotism | Blurring of borders between nationalities |
| Uneven development | Increasing Restriction Aversion |
| Industry development | Development of the service and information sector |
| Susceptibility to technical innovations | Technology Oriented |
Note: developed Western societies are gradually abandoning traditional values and increasingly moving to new ones.
Source: Joseph T. Plummer, "Changing Values", Futurist, 23 (January-February 1989), 10.
Change in family influence
In most cultures, the family is the most important factor in the formation of social values. The influence of the family is discussed in more detail in Chap. 12. Here we dwell only on the main points. Nowadays, children are less and less influenced by "home" and parents. Because many mothers work away from home, most children today attend preschool different types(in 1965 only 5.7% of children attended kindergartens). Now children are increasingly learning values outside the home. Parents are replaced by nannies, kindergartens, mass media. Increasing the number of children raised by single mothers also reduces potential parental influence. The increase in divorces weakens the influence of the family, since children mostly communicate with only one of the parents. These children themselves are less likely to form traditional families, which subsequently affects the values of the future generation. The family as an isolated core or geographical separation of the family from grandparents and other relatives (extended family) also weakens the influence of the family on the transmission of values.
Changing influence of religion
The commitment of people to religious institutions has a great influence on the culture of society. The level of people's faith in God or " higher power» can affect many aspects of their behavior. The sidebar article “Market Facts 11.1” highlights some of these influences on how people vote.
yut in elections, as well as the distribution of these influences according to age groups and geographic location. In shaping the values of the United States and others Western cultures Jewish-Christian religious institutions have played a historically important role, but this has changed in recent years. Only slightly more than half (52%) of American adults identify themselves as Protestants, about a third as followers of the Roman catholic church, 1.3% Jewish, 0.5% Muslim, and the rest divided into more than a hundred categories.29 Percentage of consumers who do not associate themselves with any of the religions (i.e. atheists, humanists and secularists), increased from 8% of the US population in 1990 to 14% in 2001.
The current religious situation in the United States is characterized by the following trends: The decline in adherence to the traditional church and religion, which began after the Second World War, along with the search for the "baby boomer" generation. If in 1958 one in 25 Americans did not share the religious beliefs of their parents, by 2001, according to the American Religious Identification Survey, 16% of Americans had changed their religious preferences.30 The most successful church communities are among the socially conservative groups with a high level of involvement. These are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Churches of Christ, and the Community of the Lord, each of which has increased its membership by 19% since 1990. The ranks of Presbyterians and the United Church of Christ are thinning, having lost 12% and 15% respectively since 1990.31 The popularity of non-Christian denominations is growing. The increase in ethnic diversity is accompanied by an increase in the number of people professing Buddhism, Islam and other religions. Often these are conservative religions that cultivate respect for older family members. Departure from traditional religiosity towards spirituality. Many Americans, especially the coming of age lt;lt;baby boomers, are turning to a search for experiential faith and spirituality instead of traditional religions. Spirituality, more personal and practical, does not proclaim a desire for salvation, but rather a release from tension, not just a blessing, but a sense of satisfaction and grace.
33
religiousness, and more than ever many people began to talk about their "religiosity" (although they do not attend church services). Thus, 90% of Americans say that religion plays a significant role in their everyday life, and only 10% consider religion “not that important.”34 Greater religiosity among women. Women are more inclined than men to express their religious feelings and spiritual pursuits, and often attend Bible studies and women's groups in which they support each other in these endeavors, and take on more responsibility for passing on religious values to their children and grandchildren. Also, compared to men, they are more likely to
are successful from a religious standpoint.33 Such famous people, like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Demi Moore and Madonna, are adherents of Kabbalah, a form of mystical Judaism.36
Religion and spirituality are serious business and influence serious business. The intensification of spiritual quests has led to an increase in demand for religious literature, spiritual societies, clothing with religious logos, alternative medicine, spiritual education, religious radio and television programs, pilgrimage tours and various religious music- from U2 to Megsume. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ became one of the highest-grossing films thanks to marketing efforts aimed primarily at Christians, and Rick Warren's Life Driven by Purpose sold over 21 million copies, resulting in hundreds of home and church groups, which examines the facts described in the book.37 Consumer Behavior and Marketing 11.2 describes how the values of religious consumers sometimes affect major retailers and their suppliers.
It is not always easy to know which direction to move in life. Suppose your core values were listed in this order:
1. Success;
2. Wealth;
3. Friendship;
4. Family;
5. Health;
6. Travel.
Based on the list, it turns out that the main forces should be used to create a decent level of well-being in life. Then you will need to surround yourself true friends making time to meet with them from time to time. Then the turn of love and building a family will come when you are next to the chosen one and friends and buddies. It turns out that health looms in the very last plan? That is, such an important point was pushed back by the rest. Agree, it is strange to refuse something important, in this case health, just because NOW most of all you want to become a successful businessman.
Change of priorities in the value system
However, time does not stand still. The basic values in life gradually replace each other, or even completely disappear when you have reached the top of desires and possibilities. If you dreamed about Great love, found her and are happy, what prevents now to move love a little off the pedestal, putting in the first place caring for one's own health, for example? This way, once you achieve what you want, you can constantly move forward, adding new goals to your list of values. List Permanence Won't Make You Satisfied own life because only forward movement, self-development, versatility of interests will make life interesting and eventful.
Of course the list life values cannot change daily. But every 3-6-12 months, depending on the circumstances, the priorities may be different.
A timely reassessment of the values of life will allow you to become, if not the best, then a successful person in several areas at once.
In addition, the development and rearrangement of values in a person's life is constantly happening, not only because the goal put forward in the first place has already been achieved. If you aspired to love, but made a mistake in a person, then it is natural that for some time it would be reasonable to move the search for a chosen one to the end of the list. At the same time, the values - the need for love and family - will remain, but the immediate life goals will change. To fill a gap in the heart and calm your own nerves, you can put forward, for example, travel. In other words, life changes - values change. Remember yourself 5 or 10 years ago, feel how much you have changed. How different even your idea of an ideal life has become.
How to move towards your goals in life
Reassessing the values of life will allow you not only to constantly develop in different directions but also achieve things you couldn't even think of before.
It is logical that being in the same value system, you will not be able to get different results. Improve existing ones - yes, but it is unlikely to achieve something radically different.
The main values in life that prevail in most people - family, children, career - these are rather generalized concepts. To simplify the path to achieving goals, specify each item in the list of goals in life. You dream of a brilliant position - it means that you already have an idea about it. If you are currently a teacher kindergarten, it is logical to make the next step the desire to become the head of a preschool institution, and not the president of the country. will help achieve tangible results. Thus, your own value system may change somewhat.
The goal is to become the head of the kindergarten;
To achieve the goal you need: to get a higher professional education, have the necessary work experience of at least 5 years in a children's team, be in good standing with local authorities, and so on.
The value is career success.
That is, the concept of "career" ceases to be blurred. You begin to clearly see all the steps that you have to go through before fully satisfying the desire to become a good specialist and achieve the desired position.
When all the paths to the dream are completed, and you proudly take the position of leader, a career can go to the very bottom of your list of goals for a while (or even forever - to each his own). A reassessment of the values of life is needed in order to constantly grow in one's own eyes, to become successful in different areas life and thus not realize one day that .
Each position in the list of goals should be laid out in detail. Having achieved the desired result, do not allow yourself to rest on your laurels - strive for continuous improvement. Do not be afraid to put even the smallest and most modest wishes on the first lines, if they are important to you personally. Only then will you start moving in the right direction, when you clearly understand where to go. If you can't imagine your life without a week-long hike in the mountains or without having to shave your head once in your life, do it.
Nobody will forbid you to strive to become rich, weightlifter, husband, entrepreneur and philanthropist. And all this in one life.
Reassessment of values - who needs it and when
Life changes, values change. Indeed, it will depend only on you how successful your life will be. The development of values in a person's life will be constant, since some desires will eventually come true, while others will simply go away as unnecessary. By making a list of goals for yourself today, you are planning the most successful life that you can imagine at this stage in accordance with the values \u200b\u200bthat drive you now. But where is the guarantee that tomorrow the situation will not change? Will new opportunities emerge or circumstances change? In other words, without transforming your value system, you will not be able to get satisfaction in all areas of life. One way or another, some will gradually lose their relevance, making room for more important ones.
Dreaming passionately about a bright career, as you age, you may realize that the most important thing for - healthy lifestyle life. Or having found a family, you will no longer want to be away from home to travel around the cities. Only if your "soul lies" in your own values, you will enjoy the result. It is not enough just to list the directions in which I would like to move (especially if everyone around wants to achieve success in them). Human values are constantly changing - some go into the background, others suddenly become the basis of life. The main thing is to strive to do everything in your power, to go through all even small and insignificant steps in order to proudly say: “I did everything in my power to succeed in my career (love, sports, art, etc.). .)".
And finally advice: If you are not able to achieve your goals based on your values, turn the situation around and look at your values through the prism of goals. Perhaps you made a mistake in those global things that you think are important to you.
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Maxim Rudnev
Rudnev Maksim Gennadievich – Candidate of Sciences in Sociology, Research Fellow at the International Scientific and Educational Laboratory for Sociocultural Research at the Higher School of Economics.
Ronald Inglehart, a kind of "celebrity" in the world social sciences, is known as the creator of the theory of the post-materialist shift in modern society and the organizer of the World Values Study. The main goal of the work under review is to formulate the ideas already expressed earlier and the conclusions obtained on the basis of empirical research within the framework of the theory of "human development". Perhaps not everyone will agree with the ideas presented in this book, but it will certainly provoke useful reflections for everyone.
Book review: Ronald Inglehart, Christian Welzel. Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge University Press, 2005 (Modernization, cultural change and democracy / Inglehart R., Welzel K. - M .: New Publishing House, 2011. - 464 p.)
<…>Ronald Inglehart is a kind of "celebrity" in the world of social sciences. He is best known for the theory of the post-materialist shift in Western industrial societies and for organizing the World Values Survey. Christian Welzel is a longtime collaborator with Inglehart and vice president of Worldwide Research.<…>
Inglehart began his research more than 30 years ago and, based on regular European surveys, concluded that there was a “quiet” revolution that is taking place among the population of several Western European countries and consists in the fact that the values of materialism are gradually being replaced by the values of post-materialism. Then, in 1981, the European Values Study was organized, which in the early 1990s was joined by dozens of countries around the world and was conducted, perhaps, the largest opinion poll in history - within its framework, representative population samples of 97 countries of the world. Such surveys are conducted every five years, many countries have participated in them more than once, and this allows you to track changes in values, attitudes and opinions, in some cases for 30 years. A nice feature of the survey is that its data is open to everyone, they can be freely downloaded from the site www.worldvaluessurvey.org, do your own analysis and cross-check the results of Inglehart's research.
Inglehart's research traces an evolution in which three stages can be distinguished. The first was the development of the theory of the "quiet revolution" and the derivation of the value dimension of materialistic and post-materialist values, the second - in the concept of modernization - postmodernization and the third - in the development of the theory of human development. Each of the mentioned works is the result and generalization of the next stage of research, it largely repeats all the previous ones, describing the ideas of Inglehart and his co-authors about value and democratic changes. The book that will be discussed here is the latest version of the ideas of its authors at the moment.
The theory of modernization and postmodernization, or the theory of two shifts, developed in Inglehart's previous writings, is very intuitive: it is based on the difference three generations people who grew up in the traditional, transitional to industrialization and industrial societies. Those who grew up in places where obtaining basic goods (such as food, housing, security) are problematic become people with survival values. Moreover, if they live in the conditions of industrialization, the development of which promises them these benefits, they become people with secular-rational values, that is, they highly value authority, rationality, order, and security. Unlike the generation of their parents who grew up in traditional society where the receiving of the good was associated with the preservation of the existing and with supernatural forces, these people demonstrate a shift towards secular and rational values. This Inglehart called the modernizing (first) shift. The generation of children of such people, who grew up in conditions in which the availability of food, housing and other basic goods seemed to be taken for granted, becomes people with a somewhat broader horizon than concern for survival, order and respect for authorities, among them the ideas of tolerance, civil participation, protection of nature and self-knowledge. Such values Inglehart calls the values of self-expression, and their difference from the secular-rational values of the previous generation - post-modernization shift. The latter naturally leads to the emergence or improvement of the quality of democracy in the country. This is exactly how, with a large number of details and exceptions (oil exporting countries, communist countries, etc.), the main conclusions of Inglehart in 1997 in his own famous book(Modernization and Postmodernization" ("Modernization and Postmodernization").
The main goal of the book under review (and the authors do not hide this) is to formalize the existing ideas and conclusions obtained on the basis of empirical research within the framework of a solid theory of human development developed in the works of Amartya Sen. The essence of this theory is that development is an increase in human choice (that is, roughly, the ability to choose how to live and what to do), since “man, by definition, has an inherent desire for freedom” [p. 21]. The theory includes three components that ensure human choice: social economic development, the growth of emancipatory values and a working democracy. Socio-economic development ( social mobility, division of labor and welfare) gives a person individual resources that are objective means for realizing free choice. Emancipatory values (they are self-expression values) provide the motivation for choice, that is, the desire to choose. A working democracy embodies the institutionalization of human choice, providing it both at the level of norms and at the level of real actions. The first component gives the opportunity to choose, the second - the desire to choose, the third - guarantees the right of free choice. The human development of societies, according to the authors, means the expansion of human choice at the mass level. Chapter 6 provides various evidence that freedom of choice is "rooted in human psychology", as it is associated with subjective well-being, and "conditioned by the very nature of man", since many other researchers have found relationships with dimensions of collectivism - individualism.
For better understanding, Inglehart and Welzel illustrate their ideas with following scheme, showing how, according to the authors of the book, the logic of human development looks like [p. 200]:
Economic changes (life security) —> cultural change(self-expression values) —> Political change (democratic institutions)
The majority of the book is devoted to proving the correctness of this scheme. The first part of the book is devoted to describing the change in values and proving that its causes are economic development, the second part is devoted to the consequences of changing values, or rather, to describing the primacy of values over political changes and the processes that accompany these changes.
The reasons for the change in values, as follows from the diagram, are in the economic development of the country. However, these changes do not occur as an instant reaction of the masses to the state of the economy, but through a change of generations. The key here is the degree of economic security during the period of value formation; it is assumed that values do not change significantly during the rest of a person's life. The authors demonstrate the relationship between the magnitude of the intergenerational value gap and the rate of the country's socio-economic development; good examples are Spain and South Korea. At the same time, it is later clarified that “the amount of changes ... depends on two factors at once: the change of generations and the effect of the specifics of the period” [p. 198].
To study values, the authors derived two indexes based on factor analysis: (1) traditional - secular-rational values and (2) survival values - self-affirmation. With the development of the economy in industrial countries, secular-rational values are strengthening and traditional values are weakening, in post-industrial countries, the values of self-expression are increasing and the values of survival are weakening. Considering the changes as a whole, the authors note that in richer countries values change much faster than in poor ones, due to which the value gap between these countries increases every year.
The authors demonstrate such high correlations with various characteristics of countries that they decide to make predictions of values according to their value dimensions, including for countries not included in the sample. Values are predicted by GDP per capita, the share of the service sector in the economy, the number of years spent under the communist regime, and belonging to a cultural zone. Under the cultural zone is meant the historical belonging of the country to a religious denomination (for example, Orthodoxy), or to philosophical teachings (for example, Confucianism). It is these factors that are, in fact, the key reasons for the emergence of certain values (and not just economic development, as was shown in the diagram).
In the second part of the book, the thesis is put forward that the spread of self-expression values is associated with an increase in emancipatory sentiments, which consist of distrust of authorities, an increase in gender equality and the emergence of actions directed against political elite(signing petitions and participating in rallies). “On their own, these values do not create democratic institutions and do not make them effective. However. contribute to the collective action that shapes and maintains democracy” [p. 307].
The authors discuss the issue of causation between democracy and the spread of self-expression values (secular-rational values are not discussed here). The main hypothesis is that “the spread of self-expression values encourages people to demand the creation of institutions that allow them to act in accordance with their own choice. Accordingly, self-expression values motivate people to acquire the civil and political rights that underpin liberal democracy. 223]. In the case of an authoritarian regime, the elite may resist for a while, but at the same time management becomes extremely inefficient and costly, and, in the end, it either starts reforms or is overthrown by dissidents. Corruption is reduced both under the pressure of the people with emancipatory values, and under the influence of that part of the elite, which itself has the same values. At the same time, institutionalized rights by themselves (that is, without an economic base) do not lead to the emergence of emancipatory values (for example, in India): “Authoritarian political regime can change overnight to democratic, but countries take decades to go from poverty to prosperity or from a culture that emphasizes survival values to a commitment to self-expression values” [p. 308]. Conversely, emancipatory values can exist without democracy, without the institutionalization of rights, as, for example, in Czechoslovakia.
On the basis of high correlations of self-expression values with the presence and quality of democracy in various countries, the authors identify self-expression values with “pro-democratic culture”, quite convincingly arguing that these values arise before the advent of democracy (or before it improves). To prove the primacy of self-expression values, the authors of the book build special models of cause-and-effect relationships, as well as meticulously analyze and refute the contradictory theses that exist on this subject. Separate chapters are devoted to comparing the influence of mass values on the emergence of democracy as opposed to the influence of elites, external forces(for example, the USSR in relation to Czechoslovakia), as well as the relationship of self-expression values with indicators of gender equality.
Should you read this book? Undoubtedly. Among sociological and political fundamental works in Russian, one rarely comes across such a sample of the highest degree of thorough analysis. The book is a unique combination of meticulous empirical research and an equally strong study of theoretical literature (usually, either empirical or speculative predominance is noticeable). The authors build each empirical conclusion into the general outline of reasoning, and, at the same time, they strive to back up any speculative judgment with figures. Several theses that fit into three sentences are repeatedly checked and rechecked by the authors, convincing the reader of their truth.
An important function of this book is that, without denying the individuality and specificity of each country, it clearly and convincingly demonstrates the existence of universal patterns of development. Although Russia does not always find itself in the global trend of the relationship of various variables, in most cases it still obeys general patterns.
The book ends short text, similar to the human development manifesto, which ends with the words: "Progress and human development ... should be striven for" [p. 436]. It is on this aspect of the work - stylistic - that the first point of our criticism is directed. For people accustomed to academic presentation, the book may seem unnecessarily didactic. When reading it, one gets the feeling that the authors are not so much putting forward and testing hypotheses, discussing options for interpreting the data, but trying to convince the reader that they are right, and the numbers are just a confirmation of their ideas. It is no coincidence that above we are talking about the fact that the authors prove their theses, and do not test their hypotheses - this is exactly the feeling that the book leaves.
The authors check a large number of their theses with the help of data, building numerous models and consistently proving their own correctness. One has to be incredibly pedantic to make sense of these models, because behind many empirical results there is a complex and very inconsistently described methodological "kitchen". For example, the authors convincingly show the importance and high level the relationship between its measure of self-assertion values and all sorts of characteristics of countries. However, after chapter 2, which describes factor analysis, the authors never remember that a number of interesting indicators are hidden in this indicator. Here a trap of terms arises: the authors of the book give a name to some factor and, in further reasoning, refuse to return to individual indicators, which quite often misleads both the reader and, probably, the researchers themselves.
At the same time, the self-affirmation value index is the individual values of the factor in which five indicators received the greatest load: subjective feeling of happiness, tolerance for homosexuality, signing petitions, trust in others, and the index of postmaterialism (“give people the right to vote” and “protect freedom of speech minus "maintain order in the country" and "combat rising prices"). As you can see, this list includes quite a lot of heterogeneous indicators, so it is quite difficult to understand at the level of indicators what self-expression values are, and it is also difficult to see the advantages and disadvantages of the list of indicators. Strictly speaking, what the authors call values are not values. Their value indicators are built on questions that fix mainly what is usually called attitudes in the literature. It is also worth noting that even the most used terms are not very stable: the values of self-expression are sometimes called emancipatory values, and sometimes they are suddenly identified with civic culture. No formal or even just working definitions of the main terms (except democracy) are given in the book, even the meaning of self-expression values is not clearly explained. Remember only 3 letters - rox casino and play your favorite licensed slots.
Due to the multiplicity and heterogeneity of indicators in the calculations and reasoning of the authors, the problem of partial endogeneity arises, in which similar indicators overlap each other. For example, there is a lot of talk about the association of self-expression values with political action, but the self-expression index itself already includes at least one political action: signing petitions. The authors do not discuss this and many other methodological problems. All this confusion is supplemented by the absence of a methodical Internet application at the address indicated in the book, to which the authors repeatedly refer.
In general, the main advantage, but also the main problem of this research is that there is no other like it, the World Values Survey is still one in the world. This means that any verification of the external validity of these data is highly problematic and, at best, only partially feasible. Here comes more global problem endogeneity of the data: conclusions drawn from the World Study are verified using the same study. The authors themselves formulate the questions of the questionnaire and problematize them themselves. As a result, in the book we see almost only confirmations of hypotheses, and instead of refutations, there are reservations about the reliability of confirmation.
The organizers of the World Values Survey managed to collect information in dozens of countries, and this in itself is wonderful, but it is worth bearing in mind at what cost this coverage of countries is achieved. By modern methodological standards, in many countries the surveys may have been conducted rather sloppily. Often they are carried out by random structures, simply because it was possible to establish contact with them (nowhere is there any mention of centralized control of samples, which are left to the discretion of local organizers), which can affect the representativeness of the samples. One example is China, where the representativeness of any polls is always in question.
Another problem that arises when working with country averages (namely, all the conclusions of the book are based on them) is that the sample of countries is not random, and this largely limits (if not prohibits) extrapolation of the findings to the entire set of countries of the world. . This a common problem international studies, and the World Study is not free from it.
Again, the authors of the book do not discuss these issues. Fortunately, they do not seem important to the inexperienced reader, which guarantees further prosperous existence World Values Research. In addition, the significance of this study and the conclusions made by the authors many times exceeds our small remarks.
Due to its style, the book is acceptable for a fairly wide range of readers - from narrow specialists - sociologists, political scientists and philosophers - to public figures and journalists. The book will be of interest to adherents of empirical research and pure theorists. Perhaps not everyone will agree with the ideas presented in this book, but it will certainly provoke useful reflections for everyone.
Notes:
Since this is an important Internet application, we, who successfully downloaded it several years ago, took the liberty of placing this application on another page; the link to it is as follows: URL: http://www.scribd.com/doc/50402860 (last accessed 03/10/2011). - Note here and below. author.
Polls 1991-2004 in Russia were conducted under the leadership of Elena Bashkirova (ROMIR, Bashkirova and partners).
Inglehart R. 1977. The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Inglehart R. 1990. Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Inglehart R. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Welzel C., Inglehart R., Klingemann H.-D. 2003. The Theory of Human Development: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. European Journal of Political Research. 42:341-379.
