scholarly journals Social and economic determinants of support for a strong non-democratic leader in democracies differ from non-democracies

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-352
Author(s):  
Silas Xuereb ◽  
Michael J. A. Wohl ◽  
Anna Stefaniak ◽  
Frank J. Elgar
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
System P ◽  
The Individual

A growing body of evidence suggests that support for a strong non-democratic leader is driven, in part, by low economic development and economic inequality at the country level, and low income and interpersonal trust at the individual level. In the current research, we tested the hypothesis that although such a pattern predicts support for a strong non-democratic leader in democracies, it should produce decreased support for a strong non-democratic leader in non-democracies (where the presence of such leaders is the political status quo). Using three waves of World Values Survey data (2005-2020), as predicted, we found that in democracies, low economic development, high inequality, and low interpersonal trust predicted support for a strong non-democratic leader. However, in non-democracies, support for a strong non-democratic leader was higher in more economically developed countries and among individuals with higher social trust. These results contradict modernization theory’s proposition that development promotes support for democratic rule and suggest that economic development reinforces support for the existing political system.

scholarly journals Security and attitudes toward globalization: A multilevel analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 805-822
Author(s):  
James E. Cameron ◽  
Lucie Kocum ◽  
John W. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
National Economic Security

Globalization implicates a number of social psychological processes and outcomes, including openness to ideas, products, and people from outside one’s national boundaries. Drawing from theory and research on intergroup threat, the researchers posited that people will be more open to connections between their nation and others if they feel their economic situation and culture are relatively secure. They found some support for these hypotheses in 2 sets of archival survey responses collected by the Pew Global Attitudes Project in 2002 (40 countries; N = 34,073) and 2009 (25 countries; N = 22,500). Personal economic security and perceived national economic security were associated with more positive attitudes toward globalization in both survey years. However, country-level variables—development status (as indexed by the United Nations’ Human Development Index) and aggregated economic and cultural security—moderated the individual-level effects in several ways. Individual perceptions of national economic security more strongly predicted attitudes toward globalization in more favourable climates (e.g., in more developed countries, and at higher levels of country-level national economic security). Individual-level cultural security was positively associated with attitudes toward globalization in countries with higher levels of socioeconomic development, but negatively related to those attitudes in less developed nations. The results provide some new perspectives on individual and collective factors that inform the perceived benefits of globalization.

scholarly journals A Multilevel Modeling Study of the Influence of Relationship Enhanc¬ing Traits and Individualism on Satisfaction with Life Across Nations [Estudio de la influencia de los rasgos y el individualismo en la satisfacción vital entre naciones: un modelo multinivel].

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Anita Feher ◽  
Paul F. Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
Multilevel Modelling ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Cross Cultural Study ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level 2

The current cross-cultural study explored the associations between relationship enhancing traits (interpersonal trust, importance of close relationships, sociability), characteristics corresponding to an individualistic attitude (competition, autonomy), and life satisfaction. Data for this study was from 24 of the 59 countries used in the World Values Survey Wave 6. Multilevel modelling was used as a means to analyse the influence of individual level (Level 1) and country level (Level 2) variables on life satisfaction. Results indicated that the individual level predictors interpersonal trust and importance of close relationships made meaningful positive contributions to life satisfaction. The competition variable aggregated at the country level significantly negatively predicted life satisfaction, while country-level aggregated autonomy shared a positive relationship with life satisfaction.

The tendency to trust as individual predisposition – exploring the associations between interpersonal trust, trust in the media and trust in institutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaus Jackob
Keyword(s):  
Social Trust ◽  
Interpersonal Trust ◽  
German Population ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Trust Relationships ◽  
Trust In Institutions ◽  
The Media ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
The Individual

AbstractTrust in the media has become an increasingly important issue in communication research. Traditional credibility research and modern media skepticism studies have bred a multiplicity of empirical findings illustrating the attitudes of the recipients toward the mass media, possible reasons for trust or skepticism, and possible consequences of media trust for the individual and society. However, the psychological causes of trust in the media have not attracted much attention in communication research. This is especially true for personality traits such as individual level of interpersonal trust, which, as a global attitude, might be considered as one possible reason for the development of further trust relationships. In this paper it is assumed that the individual level of generalized social trust is one possible reason for the development of trust in the media. It is assumed that people tending to generally trust their fellow humans also express high levels of trust in the media and in other institutions. Based on a representative telephonic survey of the German population, it was found that there are positive correlations between interpersonal trust, trust in the media, and trust in other institutions.

Older workers’ education and earnings among OECD countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 170-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doo Hun Lim ◽  
Shin-hee Jeong ◽  
Sangok Yoo ◽  
Min Hee Yoo
Keyword(s):  
Older Workers ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Study Results

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify to what extent individual-level factors (age, gender, participation in formal and non-formal education and levels of skills use at work) and country-level factors (social capital factors, national competitiveness and gross domestic product [GDP]) have contributed to older generations’ earnings in developed countries.Design/methodology/approachUtilizing the data from the Organizational Economic Co-operation and Development Skills Outlook 2013 survey, GDP and the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report, this study adopted a multilevel path analysis method to measure cross-country-level effect of the study variables on older workers’ earnings.FindingsStudy results indicated that age, gender, non-formal education, use of influencing and task discretion skills at work at the individual level, and GDP, social trust, and higher education and training at the country level were identified as influential factors for older workers’ monthly earnings.Originality/valueWith more aging societies worldwide, the traditional view of the aging workforce has been affected by the desires and needs of the elderly. This study contributes to the literature by identifying what individual- and country-level factors should be considered for policymakers to improve the economic benefits of older generations living in developed countries.

Revisiting Environmental Citizenship

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Takahashi ◽  
Edson C. Tandoc ◽  
Ran Duan ◽  
Anthony Van Witsen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Environmental Sociology ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Environment Quality ◽  
Environmental Citizenship ◽  
Country Level ◽  
National Perspective ◽  
The Individual

This study proposes, from a cross-national perspective, a model of environmental citizenship that includes predictors at the individual and contextual levels. The model is based on multiple theoretical considerations from environmental sociology, media studies, and economics. The study, based on secondary data, reports that at the individual level, media use, environmental concern, and postmaterialism positively predict environmental citizenship. However, the data also allow to test whether the effects of these variables vary depending on social and environmental contexts. Beyond the individual level, results show that, overall, the effect of environmental concern is stronger in countries with better environment quality. The results also show that economic development at the country level positively explains a stronger effect of postmaterialism on environmental citizenship than in less developed countries. The study shows that environmental citizenship is stronger in countries with lower levels of environment quality, and in countries with less developed media systems.

Environmental Behavior in Cross-National Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Pisano ◽  
Mark Lubell
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
National Level ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Proenvironmental Behavior ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Cross National

This article seeks to explain cross-national differences on environmental behavior. After controlling for a series of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors, it was predicted that national levels of wealth, postmaterialism, education development, and environmental problems are positively related to environmental behavior. The national-level variance is to a substantial degree explained by individual-level variables, capturing compositional effects. The remaining variance is explained by the contextual-level variables. All of the country-level variables are predictors in the expected direction, with the exception of environmental degradation, which is negatively related to behavior, and education development, which has no impact on private environmental behavior. More importantly, cross-level interactions show that in more developed countries, there are stronger relationships between proecological attitudes and reported proenvironmental behavior. These findings contribute to the growing cross-cultural research on environmental behavior pointing out the necessity of simultaneously assessing the effects of both individual and contextual-level forces affecting behavior across nations.

Inequality in active ageing: evidence from a new individual-level index for European countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIKKEL BARSLUND ◽  
MARTEN VON WERDER ◽  
ASGHAR ZAIDI
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Share Data ◽  
The Individual

ABSTRACTIn the context of emerging challenges and opportunities associated with population ageing, the study of inequality in active-ageing outcomes is critical to the design of appropriate and effective social policies. While there is much discussion about active ageing at the aggregate country level, little is known about inequality in active-ageing experiences within countries. Based on the existing literature on active ageing, this paper proposes an individual-level composite active ageing index based on Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data. The individual-level nature of the index allows us to analyse inequality in experiences of active ageing within selected European countries. One important motivation behind measuring active ageing at the individual level is that it allows for a better understanding of unequal experiences of ageing, which may otherwise be masked in aggregate-level measures of active ageing. Results show large differences in the distribution of individual-level active ageing across the 13 European countries covered and across age groups. Furthermore, there is a positive association between the country-level active ageing index and the equality of its distribution within a country. Hence, countries with the lowest average active ageing index tend to have the most unequal distribution in active-ageing experiences. For nine European countries, where temporal data are also available, we find that inequality in active-ageing outcomes decreased in the period 2004 to 2013.

scholarly journals Evaluating the individual- and country-level variations in tax morale

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 816-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin C. Williams ◽  
Besnik Krasniqi
Keyword(s):  
Tax Compliance ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Social Actor ◽  
Actor Model ◽  
Tax Morale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

Purpose Recently, a small but burgeoning literature has argued that tax non-compliance cannot be fully explained using the conventional rational economic actor approach which views non-compliance as occurring when the pay-off is greater than the expected cost of being caught and punished. Instead, a social actor approach has emerged which views tax non-compliance as higher when “tax morale”, defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, is low. To advance this social actor model, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the individual and national heterogeneity in tax morale, which is crucial if tax compliance is to be improved. Design/methodology/approach To do this, the authors report data from the 2010 Life in Transition Survey on tax morale in 35 Eurasian countries. Findings Logit econometric analysis reveals, on the one hand, that there is higher tax morale among middle-aged, married, homeowners with children, with a university degree and employed, and on the other hand, that there is higher tax morale in more developed countries with stronger legal systems and less corruption, and higher levels of state intervention in the form of both taxation and expenditure. Research limitations/implications Rather than continue with the rational actor approach, this paper reveals that how an emergent social actor approach can help to more fully explain tax non-compliance and results in a different policy approach focused upon changing country-level economic and social conditions associated with low tax morale and thus non-compliance. Practical implications These results display the specific populations with low tax morale which need targeting when seeking to tackle tax non-compliance. Originality/value This paper provides a new way of explaining and tackling tax non-compliance in Eurasian countries.

scholarly journals Who is afraid of more women in politics, and why? An analysis of public opinion in 28 European countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimiter Toshkov ◽  
Giulia Cretti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gender Parity ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Masculine Culture

We study how individual and country-level variables interact in affecting political gender attitudes in Europe. Based on data from the 2017 Eurobarometer survey, we show that there are high levels of support for more women in politics and legal measures to achieve gender parity across the EU. In fact, more people, and women in particular, put higher trust in female compared to male political representatives than the other way round. We find that – at the individual level – gender, age and education have significant effects on political gender attitudes. Contrary to theory, however, the effect of gender is not mediated by beliefs about the proper role of women in politics and society. We also do not find support for the contextual effects of masculine culture and the religiosity of society, but we do uncover significant gaps in political gender attitudes between post-communist and other countries, especially for men. This gap is very significant in size and declines only marginally with the age of the respondent. Our study identifies men in post-communist countries as the group least likely to trust female politicians and support gender parity in politics in Europe. These attitudes are at least partly independent from stereotypes about gender roles.

scholarly journals The Role of Individual- and Contextual-Level Social Capital in Product Boycotting: A Multilevel Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Zasuwa
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Consumer Participation ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Consumer Activism ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Individual

Product boycotts represent an important form of sustainable consumption, as withholding purchasing can restrain firms from damaging the natural environment or breaking social rules. However, our understanding of consumer participation in these protests is limited. Most previous studies have focused on the psychological and economic determinants of product boycotting. Drawing on social capital literature, this study builds a framework that explains how individual- and contextual-level social capital affects consumer participation in boycotts of products. A multilevel logistic regression analysis of 29 country representative samples derived from the European Social Survey (N = 54221) shows that at the individual level product boycotting is associated with a person’s social ties, whereas at the country level, generalized trust and social networks positively affect consumer decisions to take part in these protests. These results suggest that to better understand differences among countries in consumer activism, it is necessary to consider the role of social capital as an important predictor of product boycotting.

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