CONVERGENCE OF VALUES IN THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

Abstract

Relevance. The issue of convergence/divergence of value systems remains debatable, and the expectation that, as they develop, the countries of the semi-periphery and periphery of the World System will move in one universal direction and become increasingly closer to Western countries does not seem unconditionally justified. The subject of the study is the dynamics of value attitudes of the population of Latin American countries. The purpose of the study is to establish the convergence/distance between the population of Latin American countries and the countries of the Old World in terms of their value systems. The objectives of the study are to predict the dynamics of value attitudes of the population of Latin American countries relative to the countries of the Old World. Scientific novelty – for the first time, the dynamics of value systems of the population of Latin American countries relative to the countries of the Old World is considered. Research method – To analyze the influence of various factors on the two value axes identified by Inglehart, a general additive model with mixed effects on the country (random intercept) was used. Data source – the World Values Survey. Results: in terms of traditional/secular values, the countries of South America had almost no overlap with the countries of Western Europe at the beginning of the 21st century, but the gap is narrowing from year to year. In terms of survival/self-expression values, there is a certain kind of conservation of persistent differences between the developing countries of the New World and the developed countries of the Old World, when both regions almost do not overlap. Conclusions – over time, largely thanks to the rapid breakthrough of developing countries, the world will converge along the axis of traditionalreligious/secular-rational values. Recommendations. The New World is increasingly catching up with the Old World in terms of secular-rational values, which should be considered when forecasting the sociocultural dynamics of this region. However, this does not mean that Latin America will become completely identical to Western Europe in terms of religiosity/secularism.

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