Cultural Aspects of Economic and Political Development: Old and New EU Members in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse key aspects of economic and political culture of the new EU members from Central and Eastern Europe in comparison to old members (EU-15) of the European Union. Authors argue, that both, economical and political culture of most developed countries have a common core of underlying values, mainly being characterized by individualistic orientations and active, participatory attitudes.This argument is being empirically tested based on the data of several comparative research conducted in old and new members in recent years. Even though the data points to several distinctions among old and new members as regards the compatibility of their economic and political culture with the principles of market economy and parliamentary democracy, it is impossible to argues, that old and new countries are incompatible as regards the economic and political culture. Key words: economic culture, political culture, market economy, parliamentary democracy, European Union, Central and Eastern Europe