ABSTRACT
The previous chapter established an empirical framework giving access to the raw material, so to speak, needed to discover the reactions of citizens of the two regions analysed in this study when confronted to questions about ‘basic societal values’. That raw material then needs to be interpreted, however. No doubt differences will be found, but also similarities, in the patterns of reactions of citizens: the real problem is to ensure that sensible conclusions are drawn from the combined examination of these similarities and differences, and that both a comprehensive and ‘correct’ image of the reality emerges at the end of the process. In a nutshell, given that we are unlikely to find differences which are so vast that there is nothing in common between the citizens of the two regions, the question which arises is to decide at what point one can state that ‘Asian values’ are indeed widespread and at what point, on the contrary, one can state that they are not, even if, no doubt, such a conclusion remains to an extent controversial.
