Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Todosijevic, Bojan

Titel

Between the general and specific: Political tolerance and general support for democracy in Serbia and Europe

Ist Teil von

• Sociologija, 2008-01, Vol.50 (3), p.267-292

Ort / Verlag

Sociological Scientific Society of Serbia

Erscheinungsjahr

2008

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Political tolerance is one of the basic values of a democratic society. At the same time, it is also a controversial value - political freedoms are often used to undermine democratic order. In light of the early findings of low level of political tolerance in Eastern Europe (e.g., Bahry, Boaz & Gordon, 1997; Gibson & Duch, 1993), it is important to investigate both its general level and the association with the support for general democratic norms. This paper presents results of a comparative research of political tolerance in Europe, with special focus on the situation in Serbia. The first part of the paper presents descriptive findings abut the support for general democratic norms and the degree of tolerance in approximately 30 European countries. The second part analyzes the relationships between the general acceptance of democratic norms and political tolerance, i.e., the application of the abstract norms to specific groups. The research is based on the World Values Survey data (WVS; http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org). WVS data include the so called 'the least liked group' measure of political tolerance, developed by Sullivan et al. (1979, 1982). The results, once again, indicted the gap between widespread endorsement of abstract democratic norms and readiness to grant the basic political liberties to various specific political groups. Although the level of political tolerance is low across Europe, intolerance is still more widespread in East European countries. Serbian respondents appear similar to those from neighboring countries. Politicka tolerancija se smatra jednom od temeljnih vrednosti demokratskog drustva. Istovremeno, to je i kontroverzna vrednost - politicke slobode se neretko koriste u svrhu potkopavanja demokratskog poretka. U svetlu ranih nalaza o nedostatku politicke tolerancije kod stanovnika istocne Evrope (na pr., Bahry, Boaz i Gordon, 1997; Gibson i Duch, 1993), vazno je istraziti kako opsti nivo netolerancije, tako i povezanost sa prihvatanjem opstih demokratskih normi. Ovaj rad predstavlja uporedno istrazivanje politicke tolerancije u Evropi, sa posebnim osvrtom na situaciju u Srbiji. Prvi deo rada predstavlja opisne nalaze o prihvatanju opstih demokratskih normi i stepenu politicke netolerancije u tridesetak evropskih zemalja. Drugi deo deo je usmeren na ispitivanje povezanosti izmedju nacelnog prihvatanja demokratskog sistema i politicke tolerancije, tj. primene opstih normi na konkretne grupe. Istrazivanje je bazirano na podacima iz Svetske Studije Vrednosti (World Values Survey, WVS; dostupno na http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org). WVS podaci ukljucuju operacionalizaciju politicke netolerancije poznatu kao metod 'najmanje omiljene grupe' Salivena i saradnika (1979, 1982). Rezultati su jos jednom ukazali na raskorak izmedju opsteg prihvatanja demokratije i spremnosti da se osnovne politicke slobode ogranice razlicitim konkretnim politickim grupama. Iako je nivo tolerancije nizak u gotovo celoj Evropi, netolerancija je ipak izrazenija u zemljama istocne Evrope, pri cemu se ispitanici iz Srbije ne razlikuju puno od onih iz susednih zemalja.