and also one where taxes are low and individuals take responsibility
for themselves. A person on the right is also less inclined to consider
that competition is harmful and that government should take more
responsibility to ensure that everyone is provided for. On the left, on
the contrary, respondents prefer an egalitarian society with extensive
social protection provided by the government, and they tend to believe
that competition is harmful and brings out the worst in people.
These findings are very much in line with our understanding of the
left and the right as anchored in distinct conceptions of equality in a
democratic society, the first focused on unmet needs and solidarity,
the other on opportunity and individual achievement. Each concep-
tion privileges specific social mechanisms: redistribution and state
intervention for the left, competition and markets for the right. The
worldwide scope of the World Values Survey suggests that these
conceptions run across different social and political cultures, and
constitute a widespread tacit knowledge about politics, a vocabulary
people may not be able to define precisely but understand very well.
The specific contours of the left and the right undoubtedly vary across
space and time, but these notions are not empty vessels that can be
filled with any possible meaning. This conclusion is reinforced when
we consider responses unrelated to equality as such, but associated
with the broader sets of values linked to the left and the right. In
Table 2.2 , for instance, one can see that those on the right are more
likely to have reservations about immigration to their country, about
homosexuality, and about abortion. Table2.3 is consistent with this
pattern, with results describing the relationship between left–right
self-placement and the qualities respondents find the most important
to encourage in children.
As George Lakoff would have predicted, the child qualities that are
most strongly associated with the left are imagination and inde-
pendence, and the qualities that correlate most powerfully with being
on the right are religious faith and obedience. All in all, people on the
right favor faith, obedience, hard work, and thrift while people on the
left grant more importance to imagination, independence, tolerance
and respect for other people, determination and perseverance, a feel-
ing of responsibility, and unselfishness.
Persons on the left and the right are also likely to have distinct
attitudes toward life, the former being more optimistic about human
nature but also more critical about their country and the world, and
44 Left and Right in Global Politics