Values and the active community

The International Studies of Values in Politics inaugurated an experiment in cross-national social research, an experi ment distinctive both in the subject attacked and the strategy of conducting the inquiry. This was the first attempt to examine, on a strictly comparative basis, the impact of leaders values on social change and development at the community level. On the organizational side, it piloted a pattern of international collaboration in which design, execution and analysis were jointly determined by teams from four different countries.

From a scientific standpoint, the construction of cross-nationally equivalent measures of values and of community activeness-the first involving individual dispositions, the other collective group behavior directed toward developmental change was a most demand ing and exciting accomplishment.

In terms of theoretical and policy significance, the major cross national differences in the determinants of developmental change were the most striking finding.