Leeftijd als voorspeller van de mate van conservatisme. ‘I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.’ (Robert Frost)

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of this study was to look at the relation between age and conservative attitudes in Western Europe. Theory. The relationship between age and conservative attitudes can manifest itself through the mechanism of generations or through the mechanism of changes during the life course. The strength of generation effects as well as of life course changes on conservatism are measured on three separate dimensions of conservatism ; economic conservatism, social conservatism and ethnic conservatism. Methods. For this study data from the European Values Study were used. After selection more than 25.000 respondents were suitable in this survey for analysis. Results. Both generations and life course changes are explanatory for the degree of economic, social and ethnic conservatism in a person. Both generations and life course changes had significant effects on the degree of conservatism. Conclusion and discussion. The relation between age and conservative attitudes has further been explored. The importance of separating three dimensions of conservatism has been shown. However, extensive research on this field is necessary. More life course changes can be included in the analysis of conservatism to get an overview of all factors in influencing conservatism.