Russian Values
Russian values form the core of our understanding of Russia and Russian decision making. We therefore follow Russian values and opinion polls in great detail and analyze the difference of values both among Russia’s different regions, age cohorts, and other parameters as well as differences between Russian values and values in other countries.
We use the data from World Values Survey as a foundation for analyzing opinion polls from Levada Center, VTsIOM and other institutes. In the illustration of values between different countries from World Values Survey, it is possible to attain an understanding of some of Russia’s relations to different countries and how they have changed since the values started to be measured in the 80’s.
World Values Survey
World Values Survey consists of more than 260 questions put to between 1000 and 3500 people in each country surveyed. Unfortunately, only a few countries (12) were included in the first “wave” of surveys in the 80’s. Since then, more countries have been added in each successive “wave”. Therefore, the map does not show all countries from the first waves.
The cultural value map is made up from 10 of the 260 questions in the survey, to represent two of the most important clusters of values in order to understand the differences between cultures, religions and countries. The x-axis is made up of 5 questions concerning emancipatory values (security, political freedoms, trust and tolerance) and the y-axis is made up of five questions concerning religious/traditional vs secular values.


SECULARITY INDEX
Traditional vs. Secular-Rational Values
-
Importance of God
-
Abortion
-
Nationalism
-
Respect for Authority
-
Values for Children;
obedience & religion over
independence & determination
EMANCIPATION INDEX
Survival vs. Self-expression Values
-
Happiness
-
Political action/Signing a petition
-
Tolerance: Homosexuality
-
Trust of people in general
-
Importance of;
freedom of speech & political influence
over order & fighting inflation
Map In reference WVS, Wave 7 (2017-2020)

Continents clustered by Religion
This map highlights the relations between the countries by religion. To a considerable degree, people with the same religion have similar values. With a few exceptions. For example, the Protestant countries in Africa have values closer to their Muslim neighbors than European Protestants. Another exception are Protestants in the former Soviet Union, who had values closer to other post-Soviet countries than to democratic Protestant countries. However, Estonia has begun to move in direction of the democratic Protestant countries, whereas Latvia is moving a lot slower in the same direction.
The categorization of religion has not been without difficulties. In most countries, there is a majority of a specific religion. But in quite a few countries, there is no religious majority. We have therefore designated the country according to the religion with most followers. However, since Christianity is divided between Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox, we have designated a country as one of them if they together have more followers than any other religion. There is also a problem in more secular countries with declaring religious identity. Many people with Protestant parents, declare themselves as non-religious. This is primarily problematic in countries with Protestant and Catholic populations. Since most people from a Catholic background declare themselves as Catholics, whereas people with Protestant background declare themselves as non-religious, rather than Protestant. If religion is seen as a matter of relation to God, this gives a correct result. But if religion is viewed as cultural identity, it can give a somewhat distorted picture. The sources used for religious belonging has primarily been national censuses, PEW Research Center and the CIA World Factbook.
SCRS have analyzed the Russian data in great detail and have published a report on the results of the latest wave (SCRS Report 2018:08, Recent Trends of Values in Russia). In the report, we focus on value differences concerning geography, gender, age, political leaning and several other factors within Russia.
Countries by Economic Wealth
The map has the same values as the one with religious background, but the countries are clustered according to economic wealth in the form GDP per capita measured in ppp (purchasing power parity) to compare the economic situation of the people. Three categorized have been chosen: high, medium and low income. We elaborated with several more categories, but all other clusters resulted in very incoherent maps; many “arms” and “islands” from each economic category. We also chose the exact divisions between the three categories (10500 USD per person and 37 000 USD per person) based on resulting in as few “arms and islands” as possible. The data is derived from IMF in their estimation of GDP per capita for 2020.

Continents clustered by Economic Wealth, GDP/capita in ppp USD 2020
WVS, WAVE 7
ECONOMIC WEALTH
HIGH INCOME
GDP/cap ppp 2020
37.000 - 112.900
MEDIUM INCOME
GDP/cap ppp 2020
10.500 - 34.000
LOW INCOME
GDP/cap ppp 2020
1.500 - 10.500
EMANCIPATION INDEX
Survival vs. Self-expression Values
-
Happiness
-
Political action/Signing a petition
-
Tolerance: Homosexuality
-
Trust of people in general
-
Importance of;
freedom of speech & political influence
over order & fighting inflation
SECULARITY INDEX
Traditional vs. Secular-Rational Values
-
Importance of God
-
Abortion
-
Nationalism
-
Respect for Authority
-
Values for Children;
obedience & religion over
independence & determination

Countries by Political System
The map has the same values as the ones with religious and economic background, but the countries are clustered according to political system measured as degree of democracy instead. The degree of democracy has been measured by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) each year since 2000. They have an elaborate system of measuring democracy, using five categories: 1. Electoral process and pluralism, 2. Functioning of government, 3. Political participation, 4. Democratic political culture, and 5. Civil liberties. Each category contains 9-17 questions, and each question is thoroughly analyzed for each country. The result was published in the EIU Report “Democracy Index 2020: In sickness and in health?” in early 2021. Three categories of political system have been chosen: democracy, semi-democracy and authoritarian level of democracy. As with the economic wealth, we elaborated with several more categories, but all other divisions resulted in very incoherent maps; many “arms” and “islands” from each level of democracy. We also chose the exact divisions between the three categories (7.5 and 5.25) based on resulting in as few “arms and islands” as possible.

Continents clustered by Political System, degree of Democracy EIU index 2020
WVS, WAVE 7
POLITICAL SYSTEM
DEMOCRACY
EIU Democracy index 2020
7.5 - 10.0
SEMI-DEMOCRACY
EIU Democracy index 2020
5.25 - 7.5
AUTHORITARIAN
EIU Democracy index 2020
1.94 - 5.25
EMANCIPATION INDEX
Survival vs. Self-expression Values
-
Happiness
-
Political action/Signing a petition
-
Tolerance: Homosexuality
-
Trust of people in general
-
Importance of;
freedom of speech & political influence
over order & fighting inflation
SECULARITY INDEX
Traditional vs. Secular-Rational Values
-
Importance of God
-
Abortion
-
Nationalism
-
Respect for Authority
-
Values for Children;
obedience & religion over
independence & determination
