POLITICAL VALUES SHARED BY THE CITIZENS OF IAȘI

Authors

  • VIRGIL STOICA

Keywords:

political values, democracy, market economy, localism, measurement

Abstract

Political confrontations have had always implie a struggle between different value systems. This phanomenon takes place at international level, but also at national and local level. Therefore, it would be useful to know which are the opinions of citizens in relation to some values around which disputes are worn for over a hundred years. The purpose of this paper is to identify the attachment of Iasi citizens to some fundamental values in a democracy and a market economy. It was considered that a value is an image of objects, events, and processes considered righteous, moral and desirable. It have been taken into account five values considered, by the literature, important for the functioning of a democratic and capitalist system: participation, conflict, economic equality, government intervention in economy, and orientation towards local or central. The information has been collecte in a survey conducted in the city of Iasi, from a representative sample of 738 people. The values were measured using a scale aplied to a series of statements. The results seem to indicate that, at more than two and a half decades after the totalitarian regime colapsed, people from Iasi share a contradictory system of values, and these values are associated in a fairly small degree with a democratic regime or with a market economy.

Author Biography

VIRGIL STOICA

Prof. univ. dr. Virgil Stoica, Departamentul de Științe Politice, Relații Internaționale și Studii Europene, Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași,

References

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Jacob, Ph. E. et al. (The International Studies of Values in Politics project) (eds.). (1971). Values and the Active Community: A Cross-National Study of the Influence of Local Leadership. New York: The Free Press.

Published

20-12-2016