Tangled paths to a world culture: Contradictory trends in attitudes to globalization

In the many senses captured by the term "globalization", social life is obviously increasingly organized around a supranational world society. Evidence for this world societal view can be found in the diffusion of similar organizations, organizational structures, and ideologies on a global scale. This chapter sheds some light upon the question of whether individual views of and attitudes to international political affairs attend to these developments. Using 1995 and 2003 ISSP data, we show that individuals living in countries more strongly embedded in world society, more highly developed, and without a communist history are more internationally oriented. Within countries, at the micro level, the empowered individual who is highly educated, economically active, and has international ties is also more globally oriented. Attitudinal changes from 1995 to 2003 are slight. Differences between countries and changes over time are also related to local idiosyncrasies and historical events. In sum, there are indications of increasingly homogenous views, but local idiosyncrasies remain influential as well.