Political Values in Denmark, 1979

The purpose of this project is to examine empirically the political values of the Danes and the order of priority in which these values are put. Among the values considered to be crucial are: liberty of the individual, majority rule, economic equality, freedom of speech, political participation, confidence in the government, humanistic and post-materialistic values. The project attempts to explain the distribution of political values in the population of Denmark. Some of the explanatory factors included are: participation in or membership of organizations and clubs, political socialization, the character of the respondent, e.g. self-confidence and confidence in other people, possession of material goods, and such background variables as age and education. The validity of certain theories will also be tested, e.g. the theories about democratic consensus in stable democracies, and the theory of the interrelation between Lost-materialistic values and the satisfaction of material needs