The value orientations underlying liberalism-conservatism

Four value instruments, the Morris (1956) Ways to Live [Morris, C. W. (1956). Varieties of human value. Chicago: University of Chicago Press], the Rokeach (1968)Value Survey [Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes and values. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass], the Braithwaite and Law (1985) Goal, Mode and Social Values Inventories [Braithwaite, V. A. & Law, H. G. (1985). Structure of human values: Testing the adequacy of the Rokeach Value Survey. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 250-263] and the Scott (1960, 1965) Foreign Policy Goals and Personal Values [Scott, W. A. (1960). International ideology and interpersonal ideology. Public Opinion Quarterly, 24, 419-435; Scott, W. A. (1965). Values and organizations. A study of fraternities and sororities. Chicago: Rand McNally], were used to predict conservatism and to examine the structure of values underlying conservatism. The study confirmed the hypothesis that social and personal values would cohere around a security oriented dimension (security through order and status) and a harmony oriented dimension (humanistic and expressive concerns). Two additional value dimensions were identified, personal accomplishment and religiosity and personal restraint. Security through order and status, humanistic and expressive concerns and religiosity and personal restraint made significant contributions net of each other to explaining liberalism-conservatism. These findings are consistent with the proposition that at the value level of analysis, liberal and conservative objectives are not necessarily perceived as incompatible: Their incompatibility arises at the attitudinal level when the constraints of situation, particularly social institutions, come into play. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.