Politics and values in Britain: A test of Rokeach's two‐value model

The present study was designed to test Rokeach's two‐value model of political ideology, which predicts that socialists, conservatives, communists and fascists can be differentiated according to their value for freedom and equality. The Rokeach Value Survey was administered to a sample of British respondents in working class and middle class neighbourhoods, as well as being given to members of Conservative, Labour, Communist and National Front political parties. The results of both the politically active supporters, as well as non‐active supporters of the four parties, failed to uphold Rokeach's model. Whereas there was a distinction between left‐wing party supporters (Labour and Communist) and right‐wing (Conservative and National Front) on the value for equality, there were not the predicted differences for freedom. Supporters of all four parties rated freedom highly. These results are discussed in terms of the need to distinguish between the various ideological concepts of freedom. Other differences between the parties, not predicted on the two‐value model, were also found.