Did Economic Crisis Affect Values? The Case of Young Generation in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The theory of modernization and cultural change suggests that socio-economic conditions are correlated with the values prevalent in the population. In the process of socio-economic development human values change from survival values to self-expression values that result in greater civil and political liberties and broaden people’s priority and entitlement to act according to their choices. In this paper we examine the differences in young generation values under three economic conditions – before the last economic crisis, during the crisis and after the main dangers of the crisis were overcome (in 2006, 2010, 2012). The overall size of the sample was 1190 respondents. We find significant shift to survival values in 2010 comparing to 2006 and shift to self-expression values and values supporting civil and political liberties in 2012 comparing to 2006 and 2010. The effect of economic crisis was so pronounced, that self-expression values in 2012 overcome the values in 2006 even though economic expectations of many people did not improve dramatically.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p1599