Constructs of European Democracy and Human Values: Lessons from ESS10

The continuing influence of populist and nationalist political parties, ongoing questions concerning European unity, and worries about democratic backsliding among the EU’s near neighbors have highlighted the importance of different conceptions of democracy and the way valuations of such conceptions are related to core human values. Understanding these competing conceptions and the core values associated with them is necessary for insight into how educational, financial, religious, and other social contexts shape them. ESS Round 10 included a rotating module to assess differing constructs of democracy, alongside a longstanding 21-question module on Human Values from the research by Shalom H. Schwartz. Using ESS10 data, we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA, CFA) to propose constructs of European democracy and human values, and to test our primary hypothesis that values relating to equality, care, and empathy would relate to endorsement of liberal democratic constructs. We partitioned the ESS10 data into EFA and CFA subsets. Data from signatories of the 1957 Treaty of Rome (creating the European Economic Community) formed the EFA subset while data from all other nations formed the CFA subset. Parallel factor analysis of democracy attitudes using the EFA data (N = 14255) revealed that views on democracy were best accounted for by a bifactor model with a general pro-democracy factor along with three other factors emphasizing libertarian, economic egalitarian, and democratizing justice attitudes (99.9% CI RMSEA = {0.054,0.061}; SRMR = 0.031; CFI = 0.953; TLI = 0.929). CFA (N = 38092) supported the proposed construct model (99.9% CI RMSEA = {0.051,0.056}; SRMR = 0.026; CFI = 0.969; TLI = 0.952). Parallel factor analysis of the human values EFA data (N = 6926) reported that the data were best accounted for by five factors indexing values of equality/empathy/care/loyalty, success, tradition, hedonistic pleasure, and security (99.9% RMSEA = {0.058,0.067}; SRMR = 0.05; CFI = 0.904; TLI = 0.874). CFA (N = 28094) supported this model (99.9% CI RMSEA = {0.05,0.055}; SRMR = 0.043; CFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.921). All factors of human values associated positively with the factor indexing general pro-democracy attitudes. The human values factor indexing equality/empathy/care/loyalty showed the greatest positive association (t(31303) = 64.6, 99.9% CI R-squared = {0.11,0.13}) with general pro-democracy attitudes. Equality/empathy/care/loyalty also associated positively with attitudes emphasizing liberal democracy (equality before the law, fair elections, anti-autocracy, fourth estate freedoms, and minority rights; t(31303) = 19.0, 99.9% CI R-squared = {0.01,0.02}). By contrast, human values factors indexing success, tradition, and security all associated negatively with attitudes emphasizing liberal democracy. The ESS10 data yield interpretable models of human values and pro-democracy attitudes that can be applied to further research seeking to understand attitudes and civic action around immigration, healthcare, education, and institutional reform.