Conferences

Large-scale studies that developed tremendously the last three decades or more, offered the opportunity to more and more longitudinal and cross-national analyses. European Values Study Series (among other like WVS, ISSP, ESS, and EES) is one of them. Consequently, many comparative studies using EVS data were published. A lot of them, mainly dedicated to Western European countries, search for value similarities / dissimilarities and value change (Arts, Hagenaars & Halman, 2003; Arts & Halman, 2004; Ester, Braun & Vinken, 2006; etc). Although starting with the beginning of 90’s EVS extended to East, there are not as many comparative studies dedicated to the Eastern European countries. In our paper, we employ both a longitudinal and cross national analysis, dedicated to value change in Eastern Europe. “What are the trends in value orientations over the time passed from the fall of the communist regimes in the Eastern European countries and how do they vary between countries?”, “Is there a dynamic towards cross-national value convergence between the Eastern European countries?” “Has Eastern Europe, the tendency to witness a general farewell to traditional values, like Western societies?” are the main research questions in our study. We move beyond a “particularist view” of values, that is focused on a specific value domain (i.e. religious values, family values, work values, political values, etc.), and employ a “dimensionalist perspective”, focusing on a value system. We will use EVS / WVS 1990-2006 data sets from Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany East, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Romania. A special attention is given to Romania, where 2008 data will be also included in the analyses. The main method employed is multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA); we are testing for measurement invariance (configural, metric and scalar) and then compare the means of the latent variables (values). On one hand we expect no clear dynamic towards either value convergence or divergence. On the other hand, we expect to find – due to the reign of transition that brought with it a growth in the social risks – a revival of the traditional values, after a short period (at the beginning of the 90’s) of modernization and post modernization (see Inglehart & Welzel, 2005).