As the Economist notes
"The usefulness of dividing the broad subject of “values” in this way can be seen by plotting countries on a chart whose axes are the two spectrums. The chart alongside shows how the countries group: as you would expect, poor countries, with low self-expression and high levels of traditionalism, are at the bottom left, richer Europeans to the top right.
But America's position is odd. On the quality-of-life axis, it is like Europe: a little more “self-expressive” than Catholic countries, such as France and Italy, a little less so than Protestant ones such as Holland or Sweden. This is more than a matter of individual preference. The “quality of life” axis is the one most closely associated with political and economic freedoms. So Mr Bush is right when he claims that Americans and European share common values of democracy and freedom and that these have broad implications because, at root, alliances are built on such common interests.
But now look at America's position on the traditional-secular axis. It is far more traditional than any west European country except Ireland. It is more traditional than any place at all in central or Eastern Europe. America is near the bottom-right corner of the chart, a strange mix of tradition and self-expression."
The UK, for those who promote the Anglosphere, is in the 'European' area, but on the edge and close to that of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and then somewhat further away, the US. Japan seems somewhat wrongly placed, more secular than Europe and less self-expressive than any other OECD country. Ireland is like the US but more traditional and a little less expressive.
The Economist goes on to say that it is, of course, wrong to generalize about a country as diverse as the US. But we can generalize to the extent that there are two Americas -- half with the same position on the chart as Europe and half much less secular. They are called Democrats and Republics respectively.
posted by Matthew @ 1/03/2003 12:41:00 AM
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