The Spirits of Capitalism and Socialism - A Cross-Country Study of Ideology

Abstract

The World Values Survey contains an item on ownership, which is polled 200 times in 92 countries at the four waves of 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005. It is developed into the CS-score that measures the aggregate mass support for capitalism and socialism. Four hypotheses are advanced and tested to explain the wide cross-country variation in the CS-score: (A1) It is partly due to the cross-country distribution of income, and consequently the West stands out as the most capitalist-minded area of the world. (A2) It is associated with the institutions of the country such as legal quality. (A3) It is related to the left-right dimension in politics. (A4) It is influenced by cultural differences.

Keywords: Property rights, ideology, institutions

JEL Classification: O43, P14