Basic Values and Attitudes toward Foreign and Domestic Policies in Germany
This paper addresses the role of basic values in shaping attitudes toward domestic and foreign policy issues in the German public. Building on previous research, it argues that Schwartz’s system of basic values could be powerful in shaping attitudes toward policies from various domains. Basic values might thus give coherence to political belief systems across policy domains. Moreover, it derives the hypothesis that basic values should be more powerful in affecting issue attitudes among political sophisticates than among political novices. These expectations are examined using data from a telephone survey conducted in Germany in 2009. The evidence shows that, by and large, basic values are associated with policy attitudes as predicted by Schwartz’s theory. Though basic values are quite powerful in shaping attitudes toward new politics issues, they exhibit only minimal effects on attitudes toward economic and foreign policy. Accordingly, basic values are not effective in giving coherence to political attitudes across policy domains. The evidence also suggests that political sophistication does not increase effects of values on policy attitudes across the board. The paper concludes by summing up the findings and discussing implications and suggestions for future research.