Living in a non-communist vs. in a post-communist European country moderates the relation between conservative values and left-right political orientation: A multilevel study

We performed a multilevel, multinational analysis using the 2012 European Social Survey dataset (N=41 080, nested in 20 countries) to study how living in a non-communist versus in a post-communist country moderates the link between individual conservative values (drawn on Schwartz’s theory of basic human values) and political orientation (assessed as self-placement on the left–right axis and attitude towards economic redistribution). The results supported the moderating role of living in a non-communist versus in a post-communist country in the case both of political self-placement and of attitude towards economic redistribution, even controlling for the countries’ degree of individualism, power distance and democracy. Specifically, conservative values were positively related to a rightist political self-placement among participants living in countries without a communist past, and to a favourable attitude towards economic redistribution in countries with a communist past. The limitations, implications and future directions of this study are discussed.