Security Communities and Their Values: Taking Masses Seriously

Abstract:

This article analyzes political and social values held by people in security communities (regions, in which a large-scale use of violence is very unlikely). Inhabitants of four security communities (in Europe, Northern America, Southern America, and South-Eastern Asia) are generally more tolerant to outgroups than the rest of the world population. In addition, comprehensive security communities (that is zones where not only interstate, but also civil war became unthinkable) are characterized also by higher interpersonal trust. The previously hypothesized effect of democracy, economic liberalism, and social participation was not confirmed. Going back to Deutsch's conceptualization of the security community, the article challenges frequent assumptions in the constructivist literature.

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Keywords: security community, liberal values, public opinion, interpersonal trust, tolerance of outgroups, World Values Survey, European Union, NAFTA, Mercosur, ASEAN, comprehensive security communities, interstate security communities, interstate war, civil war, democracy, economic liberalism, civil society.