Inglehart and Norris in their own argument, the common ground that
also connects peoples, across these cultural divides. More precisely,
we seek to bring to light the common divisions that, around the world,
political parties and social movements establish to debate the content
of liberal democracy. These common divergences, and the social
dynamic they embody, make it possible to speak of a global public
sphere, intelligible for ordinary citizens as well as for the elites.
Since it first appeared more than 200 years ago, the left–right value
divide has survived the transformation of class structures and the rise
of new post-materialist values in advanced democracies. This divide
helps citizens integrate into coherent patterns their attitudes and ideas
about politics. The left and the right separate, in particular, citizens
who favor equality, social protection, and government intervention,
from those who consider we should maintain incentives for individual
effort, accept competition, and keep taxes as low as possible. In turn,
these core values organize the way most people think about a host of
social choices, whether they concern democracy, homosexuality, or
abortion. Even values that people think should be encouraged in
children diverge according to whether their proponents are on the left
or on the right. People on the right also tend to be less confident in
their fellow citizens but more satisfied and happy with their life,
possibly because they are higher in the social hierarchy and wealthier.
In new democracies, the left–right schema is evoked in the public
sphere, but it is not always anchored as solidly in public opinion, and
does not shape values and attitudes as powerfully as in older de-
mocracies. This situation, however, is evolving rapidly. For one thing,
electoral democracy is spreading throughout the world. In 1987,
40 percent of the world’s countries were electoral democracies. In
2005, this proportion had climbed to 64 percent, for a total of 122
electoral democracies.^38 It does not usually take long before electoral
competition begins to structure public views about social justice. Even
in Latin America, where the process proved more difficult, politics is
increasingly polarized along familiar lines. Everywhere, in time, the
democratic process tends to give rise to the conventional left–right
cleavage about equality.
(^38) Freedom House, “Freedom in the World 2006: Selected Data from Freedom
House’s Annual Global Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties,” New
York, Freedom House, 2006 (www.freedomhouse.org).
A worldwide value divide 55