With all the geopolitical tumult and news I was a bit curious to see what The World Values Survey could tell us about public opinion in Egypt and Tunisia. Unfortunately, Tunisia hasn’t been in any of their surveys, though Egypt has. So I thought it might be interesting to compare the USA, Sweden, Turkey, Egypt, and Iraq, for wave 5, which occurred in the mid-2000s. The main thing I took away from the exercise is to reflect that Americans are a more equivocal people than I had expected. Many of the questions have a 1 to 10 scale, and I’m providing the most extreme answers. So the low fractions for Americans for some questions point to a relative moderation on some topics…which is kind of weird when you are asking whether “People choosing their leaders is an essential characteristic of democracy.” Since that’s the definition of democracy broadly construed anything below a 10 out of 10 seems strange to me.
(Control + should increase font-size if it is too small)
USA | Sweden | Turkey | Egypt | Iraq | |
Religion “very important” | 47 | 9 | 75 | 95 | 96 |
Politics “very important” | 11 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 37 |
Family life “very important” | 95 | 92 | 99 | 98 | 96 |
Most people can be trusted | 39 | 68 | 5 | 19 | 41 |
Satisfied with life (10 out of 10) | 7 | 12 | 21 | 11 | 3 |
Great deal of control of life (10 out of 10) | 17 | 16 | 24 | 14 | 9 |
Men have more right to job than women | 7 | 2 | 53 | 89 | 84 |
Trust family completely | 73 | 94 | 95 | 96 | – |
Approve of woman as single parent | 52 | 49 | 9 | 2 | – |
University more important for boy than girl | 1 | 0 | 7 | 26 | 25 |
Government ownership of business should be increased (10 out of 10) | 1 | 2 | 12 | 25 | 22 |
Hard work brings better life (10 out of 10) | 19 | 8 | 21 | 52 | |
Great deal of confidence in armed forces | 35 | 4 | 67 | 34 | |
Great deal of confidence in police | 17 | 13 | 36 | – | – |
Great deal of confidence in government | 5 | 3 | 28 | – | 31 |
Very good for political system to have strong leader | 7 | 4 | 23 | 8 | 11 |
Very good to have democratic system | 45 | 76 | 57 | 79 | 55 |
Complete agree, too much science, not enough faith | 12 | 4 | 20 | 14 | |
Religious authorities interpreting laws is an essential characteristic of democracy | 2 | 0 | 11 | 48 | 19 |
People choosing their leaders is an essential characteristic of democracy | 56 | 79 | 48 | 79 | 58 |
Protecting civil liberties is an essential characteristic of democracy | 44 | 66 | 44 | 57 | 47 |
Women having sames rights as men is an essential characteristic of democracy | 57 | 84 | 57 | 51 | 27 |
Cheating on taxes always justifiable | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
Accepting bribe always justifiable | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Homosexuality always justifiable | 15 | 61 | 1 | – | – |
Abortion always justifiable | 7 | 37 | 2 | – | 1 |
Divorce always justifiable | 12 | 47 | 5 | 9 | 1 |
Don’t trust at all people of other religion | 5 | 3 | 30 | 22 | – |
Don’t trust at all people of other nationality | 5 | 2 | 29 | 40 | – |
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