POLITICAL ASPECTS OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: THEORY AND INHABITANT SURVEY ANALYSIS

This research Political aspects of economic and social development: theory and inhabitant survey analysis focuses on political factors influencing economic and social changes. It both discuses theory about channels that could be used for changing economic and social development as well as takes a deeper look at values and attitude toward these topics expressed by people. This is an integrated study giving an insight not only how this could work according to theory but also at how the situation is evaluated. This paper analyses data of European Values Study, which is a cross-national longitudinal survey with an aim to understand values and opinions of people across Europe. This survey provides a deep insight into topics concerning such topics like beliefs, preferences and evaluation of different political, social and economic questions. Survey is done in several waves; data for this analysis are taken from two waves of questionnaires - in 1999 and 2008. That is a good opportunity to compare situation some time before and some after Latvia joined European Union. This paper mainly focuses on data about Latvia, though also some comparision with other Baltic countries is included to see what the common or different trends in these countries are. Combining data from these surveys about inhabitant attitude to political parties and government as well as some other topics connected with politics and overall economic and social state, this paper gives an insight how this situation has changed recently compared with period before Latvia had joined European Union. It helps to understand what the tendencies of changing values and opinions are. Data from European Values Study shows that in 2008, compared to 1999 in Latvia confidence in government has decreased. Still, confidence in government in Latvia is higher than confidence in political parties in general. This paper discusses how the decisions and work of politicians have influenced these changes in trust and attitude to them. It shows what are their possibilities to continue their work and in such a way influence economic and social development.