A universal divide
The left–right value divide is rarely, in itself, an object of inquiry. At
the same time, it is so central to the construction of public opinion
that most studies of political attitudes take it into consideration.
Consequently, there is good data available to assess the significance of
the left and the right across the world. One source, in particular,
stands out. Since 1981, a worldwide network of social scientists coordi-
nated by Ronald Inglehart, the World Values Survey (WVS), has
conducted compatible public opinion surveys on every continent, to
assess socio-cultural and political change in a systematic and global
fashion.^1 The data used here, which covers seventy-eight societies, was
collected between 1999 and 2001. This data was made public in 2004.
In each society included in the World Values Survey, a represen-
tative sample of at least 1,000 people is built and the same questions
are asked, so as to develop a worldwide database permitting com-
parison of cultural and political trends across time and space. Because
the data is widely available, a large number of studies have relied
on the World Values Survey, and they provide a strong intellectual
background for cross-cultural analysis. These studies can also be
replicated, which facilitates the testing of rival hypotheses and the
pursuit of debates around divergent interpretations.
The 1999–2001 wave of the World Values Survey included societies
with various cultures, traditions, and political institutions. In all these
countries, respondents were asked to locate themselves on a 1 to 10
scale going from the left (1) to the right (10).^2 Figure2.1 shows the
worldwide distribution of respondents on this scale (19.7 percent of
respondents said they did not know; 2.7 percent did not answer the
question).
Following Ronald Inglehart, we could interpret this distribution as
indicating that 55 percent of the world’s population is on the left
(between 1 and 5) and 45 percent on the right (between 6 and 10).^3
The fact that the distribution is basically normal and centered around 5,
(^1) See http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org.
(^2) The exact question (V139) is: “In political matters, people talk of ‘the left’ and
‘the right.’ How would you place yours views on this scale, generally speaking?”
(^3) This is how he reads similar results in Ronald Inglehart,Modernization and
Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies,
Princeton University Press, 1997, p. 319.
A worldwide value divide 33