Values

(value, valued)

In its strictly economic use, value refers to the monetary worth of a good or service. In the context of politics, values refers to the importance that people attach to particular personal and social characteristics, activities, goals and even ways of life and to the reasons that some characteristics, activities, goals and ways of life are preferred (that is, valued) over others.

Values, then, reflect people's moral or ethical orientations or commitments. Individualists, for example, value personal autonomy and do so because they believe that the individual is the primary social and political unit. Collectivists, on the other hand, value enhancement of the community because they believe that groups or communities are the primary social and political units.

Asian leaders articulated a version of this division between individualists and collectivists by supporting recent claims by Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singaporean Prime Minister, that there was a difference in values between people in their countries and those in western countries, such as Australia. These leaders argued that this meant a set of western standards and principles, especially with respect to the need for political rights and democratic processes, should not apply to their countries. They asserted the existence of a set of ‘Asian values’ to argue that their countries should be built around different political relationships from those found in western countries. Asian values, in this account, gave priority to the community over the individual, centred social life around the family and legitimised social hierarchies and deference to those in superior positions.